No Red Letters!
by WaJB
Summary: Yes this is a Christmas fic. Lots of hurt plastic decorations. Can I fit romance into this? Read and find out! ITS FINISHED!
1. Chapter One: Gifts! Gifts Everywhere! Le...

DISCLAIMER:  I haven't done this in so long, I've forgotten!

This is dedicated to funniebones2k who asked if I would write a Christmas fic…I guess this answers your question!  Sorry if I haven't gotten back to you in ages! I promise I will soon! To everyone really!  I will get back to writing JtML! Heh… ^__^

No Red Letters!

A GW Christmas tale…

Chapter One:  Gifts! Gifts! Everywhere!  Let's All Have a Drink!

By:  J.B. Santiago

"Rudolph the red nose reindeer, had very shiny nose, and if you've ever seen him, you would think it glo- "

"BANG!" The automated singing reindeer bit a bullet and lost its head.  A long, slender hand brought the impossibly long gun to her lips and blew away the lingering smoke.

"One down, eleven to go…" She muttered, flipping her white-blonde hair reminiscent of those old western movies.

"Oh my God! Dorothy!"

Dorothy Catalonia blinked and raised an eyebrow.  She was face to face with twelve plastic (thankfully not life-like) reindeer, all singing "Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer" in badly dubbed voices.  

"Dorothy! Look! Isn't this just perfect?! Hey! Those singing reindeer are cute!"

Dorothy groaned.  Great, now she was hallucinating about shooting plastic reindeer.  She needed to get out of this department store before she lost it all together.

"Hey Dory, those wouldn't be bad Christmas gifts…" Bethany Montague gave her cousin a sugary smile.  "Ooohh, I get it! You're looking at those reindeer 'cause you want me to buy you them, right?"

That snapped Dorothy out of her 'Christmas-shopping-to-hell trance.  "The only reason I'm looking at those - those things - is because I want to rip of their heads off and jam it down the throats of their makers." She gritted out, loudly enough for several frantic shoppers to stumble into each other to avoid walking near her.

Her cousin looked unfazed.  "Dory, have I told you lately that I think you deter people with that attitude of yours?" With that, Bethany linked arms with Dorothy and began to drag her unwillingly to the next department.  "C'mon, this way to Santa's Village of - "

Dorothy shook out of her cousin's grasp and death-glared her.  "No.  Absolutely not.  No more Santa's Village to whatever! We're leaving. NOW."

Bethany just smiled again and gave her the puppy dog look.  "Dory. Don't be a humbug! We are doing this for you, you know.  You're the one without a present for Relena.  I mean, I thought of all people, you would have picked something up ages ago.  You got her invitation to the Christmas Ball two months ago!  We wouldn't be here on Christmas Eve, if you'd just gotten a present! So you're just going to have to shop!" Bethany finished with a flourish, grinning harder at her obviously-going-through-torture cousin. 

If Dorothy gritted her teeth anymore, they would fall out, through sheer pressure.  "Bethany. I. Told. You. I had a present! But that conniving, little, vulgar snip, Duke Graht," she spit his name out (no passers-by were hit), "Gave her the exact same present - this morning!"

"And that's why were here now!" Bethany finished off, cheerfully.  "So lets go to Santa's Village and find Relena a gift!"  She then grabbed Dorothy's arm again and dragged her into the bright colourful place that was Santa's Village of (the name was obscured by a plastic Christmas tree).

There were few times in Dorothy's life where the urge to cry was greater than her self-control.  She was rapidly heading into sobbing-uncontrollably-with-choc-chip-ice-cream territory.  Here she was, a duchess, head of a very, very wealthy corporation, with impeccable breeding and damn fine looks, shopping on Christmas Eve in a department store, of all places.  She cursed all the catalogues and her usual shopping haunts for not being open on Christmas Eve.  She cursed Duke Graht for getting the same Christmas gift.  She cursed the mob of shoppers all trying to find that last minute gift. Most of all, she cursed her cousin for somehow convincing her that a trip to the only department store open in Cinq on Christmas Eve was a sane and reasonable move.  'A little trip, twenty minutes, tops! She says.  Twenty minutes my foot! I can't believe I've spent TWO HOURS in this place!' Thankfully, Dorothy had the good breeding of not screaming this out loud.  She just contented herself with screaming it in her head while thinking up evil, evil ways of disposing her all too cheerful cousin.  'Reminder to self, reduce Bethany's intake of sugar.'

"Dory! Are you listening!? Don't you think my grandma would love this?"  Bethany dangled a pair of earrings at Dorothy's face, making her squint as the bright colours hurt her eyes.

"They're hideous, Bethany.  Will you just help me find a gift for Relena." Dorothy said coldly, squatting away the offensive earrings.  She was about to make a crueller assessment of the jewellery when something caught her eye.  Frowning even more so than before, she slipped away from the clutches of her cousin and managed to remain relatively unscathed as she weaved her way through the myriad of frenetic shoppers.  Reaching her intended target, she could only stare, with her mouth slightly open, all good breeding out the window.

         **********************************

"Your evening gown has been brought up to your room, Miss Relena."

"Thank you, Pagan.  I'm just going to check on how the ballroom is faring.  Here's the cheque for the dress." Relena Darlian handed her wiry butler a freshly ripped-from-the-cheque-book piece of paper.  "Oh, and don't forget this." Relena handed him an envelope as well. "Here's my early Christmas gift, Pagan.  Merry Christmas!"  

Pagan smiled benignly, thanked her and went off to pay the dressmaker.  "Jingle bells, jingle bells…hmmm-hmm…" Relena hummed the rest of the tune as she past caterers and decorators all coming or going to the ballroom at Peacecraft Mansion.  She knew exactly what the ballroom would look like.  She had overseen the whole production.  She smiled to herself.  The annual Christmas Ball really had taken a whole production feel about it.  This year would see everything go back to more traditional-fairytale Christmases - mistletoe hanging under every pillar (where certain perfect soldiers liked to lurk about), a large fireplace (specifically built for this event), the ten-metre tree (real pine, of course) and a present for each of her 150 guests.  The 12-piece orchestra would be playing all the favourite Christmas songs of the guests (who were given a list to choose from with their invitation), there was the five course dinner and compulsory speeches mixed in with Christmas performances.  Yes everything would be perfect.  Relena nodded to a caterer who rushed by before pushing open the heavy mahogany doors that led into the ballroom.

"Yes, absolutely per…" The words died in her throat as she stared at the atrocity that was her ballroom.

White. The Christmas tree had been spray painted white.  That was the first thing she noticed.  Then she saw the all white decorations.  Fake snow.  No fireplace.  No orchestra.  No mistletoe anywhere.  Relena felt suddenly light-headed. Blinking a few times she backed away slowly from the room until she could close the doors in front of her.  She leant her head against the cool wood and counted to ten slowly.  'I did not just see last year's 'White Christmas' decorations.  I am obviously thinking about last year.  "I've been up all night because of those trade treaties I had to review.  I did NOT see last year's decorations.'  Like a mantra, Relena repeated these thoughts over and over in her mind.

"Relena, are you ok?" A voice, not used to asking said.

"Heero! I'm fine.  I think I need to lay down and take a nap."  Relena nodded vigorously.  "Yes a nap, before the Ball.  Good idea."

Heero gave her a look but didn't press the matter.  Instead he said, "There are over 1000 white balls in the foyer.  All have passed security, do you want me send it up to the ballroom?"

Relena missed every thing else he said after 1000 white balls.  "White? Are you sure their white?" Relena's eyes were growing bigger by the second.

Heero felt an uneasy feeling wash over him.  He nodded reluctantly.  "All of them white.  Christmas decorations for the 'White Christmas' décor you asked for." As the words left his lips, he knew something was terribly amiss.  Relena looked as if she had been punched in the stomach.

"White Christmas? White CHRISTMAS?! WHITE CHRISTMAS!?" Everyone in the hallway froze, one of the caterers dropped a dessert spoon; it clanged against the Italian marble floor.  No one moved to pick it up.  Everyone just stared at a side of the Vice-Foreign Minister you never saw in public.  Heero suddenly felt the need to crawl into an air duct but his Gundam training made him stand his ground and face what was beginning to be forecast as Hurricane Relena.

Years of training made him able to hand her a clipboard without shaking.  Relena took it wordlessly, but Heero could tell the winds were reaching critical levels.  "You signed for the 'White Christmas' design to be done by WaJB Partners."

Relena looked down at the piece of paper.  Sure enough, there was her telling elegant signature on the dotted line.  "I - I…" She looked down at the dreaded contract. "It's impossible.  There's no way…" She gave Heero a befuddled look; which Heero took as a sign that the forecast might have been wrong.

Suddenly realising she was standing amid a large group of frozen people, all waiting on her next move, Relena composed herself.  "Yes. White Christmas.  Very good.  Please come with me, Heero."  She said in her most polite tone, giving a sweeping glance around the hallway, as everyone hastily went back to what they were doing before the weather changed.

Now Heero felt the apprehension rapidly biting away at his nerves.  Relena only used that voice when she was trying to contain Hurricane Relena.  This did not bode well for him.  Obviously he was not going to be getting any action under mistletoe tonight…but he hadn't done anything wrong…did he?  While Heero was recollecting all that had happened moments ago, trying to find the cause of Relena's change of state, she was walking briskly to the garage. 

"The keys to the Diablo, please." One of the servants speedily handed Relena the keys to her sleek, dark blue car.  "Heero get in."

He was about to object since he was the better driver (though he never told her that) and security had yet to be notified but Relena gave him a scathing look that made him obey.  He was her best security anyway…and her driving wasn't that bad.  Relena revved up the engine and darted out into the driveway, narrowly missing the five other luxury cars and the mechanic in the garage.

         ******************************

"Welcome to the City of Cinq.  We at Cinq Airlines hope you've had an enjoyable flight and wish you the Merriest of Christmas' and the Happiest of New Year's!  We wish you a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas  - " and on and on it blared on the speaker system in Cinq Airport.

"A bit of overkill, isn't it?" muttered Hilde Schbeiker-Maxwell.  She turned to her husband, only to find him singing (very loudly) along with the speakers.  She rolled her eyes at her extremely cheerful Duo. 'How can he be so happy after a 26hour flight?' she wondered, before taking him by his sleeve to the luggage area.

"Oooh! I love this song!" Duo exclaimed about to belt out 'Rocking around the Christmas tree' when a representative from Cinq Airlines got everyone's attention.  Hilde thanked her luck, one more out of tune song and she would have had to resort to violence.

"Ladies and Gentlemen.  Cinq Airlines would like to express our deepest apologies for the delay in your luggage.  There was a terminal mix up in L2 and L3."

A voice of discontent rippled through the passengers assembled in the baggage area.  'What?! I need my bags!'  'I've got presents to give!'  'I can't believe this!' 'I knew I should've flown with Atlantas!'; were some of the nicer comments.  Hilde looked nonplussed and just continued to watch the rep as he tried to calm the masses.

"Please! Everyone, please calm down! Cinq Airlines knows of the inconveniences that this causes to everyone.  Please we are doing the best we can to get your luggage to you as soon as possible!"

This caused more disgruntled voices, but the representative pushed on.  "Therefore, can I have two lines at the counter, one for local passengers and one for international passengers.  We need all contact details so we can send you your luggage straight away, free of charge!"

A mad rush to the counter caused some minor bruising but most people had the patience to stand in line.  "Want me to get some refreshments, honey?" asked Duo, taking happy shots of people in the international line.

"No thanks, dear." Hilde replied, wrapping her arm around Duo and handily taking the camera from him.  "Save some for the ball, dear."

She sighed, thinking about her luggage.  She was glad she had put the presents in their carry bags and not in the luggage.  Her ball dress was in there, though.  'If I don't get my luggage by tonight, then I'll just have to buy something.'  She frowned, she had been saving that dress for a special occasion and now…

"Hello ma'am, sir.  Sorry for the delay, can you please fill this out?"  The lady behind the counter (her name tag said Holly) gave them a tired smile.

Hilde smiled back and she filled out the form quickly and handed it back.

"Ok…Hilde Schbeiker-Maxwell and Duo Maxwell…Ah yes, here it is.  You're in luck your luggage is already on the way, on flight 359, arriving at 5pm."

"Really? That's great!" Hilde nodded gratefully; the ball started at nine.  If her luggage arrived at Peacecraft Mansion (where they were staying for twelve days, at Relena's insistence), at 6pm, that would give her at least three hours to prepare.  Perfect.

"We'll send you your luggage as soon as it lands, to - " Holly read the address, Hilde had written on the form.

Hilde nodded 'yes' in confirmation, wished Holly a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (Duo gave her a candy cane he found in his breast-pocket); they left the airport in a limo that was waiting for them and they headed towards Peacecraft Mansion.

         ***************************

Midii Une switched off the complimentary airline headphones just as Frank Sinatra reached the final verse of 'I'm dreaming of a White Christmas'.  She glanced out the small shuttle window before looking at the empty seat beside her and sighing.  'Nanashi has been gone for a while now.' She thought before correcting her self, 'Trowa.  He's name is Trowa now.' Through pure luck she had met Catherine Bloom who had introduced her to Trowa - the boy she had long ago fallen in love with.  The feeling hadn't changed and it had been a slow and sometimes painful progress but they had been dating for one month now.  He had invited her to accompany him to this Christmas Ball to meet his friends, which was a sure fire sign that he was serious, right?  Midii shifted uncomfortably in her seat, thinking that who ever designed these seats were trying to create the ultimate discomfort for the sitter.  Catherine was in first class, on the fortunate fate of the airline overbooking and running out of seats in economy.  At least it gave Midii more time alone with Trowa, even though she would have gladly liked to talk to someone right now.

"Where are you, Trowa?" she murmured to herself.  

"Mummy I think I'm going to be sick." 

Midii's eyes opened wide as she heard the sound of vomiting in the seat in front of her and the smell of regurgitated roast lunch began to waft towards her.  Midii rushed to her feet, bumped her shin on the drinks trolley and walked as fast as she could down the narrow lane towards the toilets.  She was about to knock on the toilet door when she heard a thud followed by a noise that sounded like a groan.  

"Oh yeah…" More muffled voices came through the door.

Midii raised an eyebrow and uncontrollably leaned closer to the door.  It didn't sound like someone was getting hurt…

"Midii?"

Midii jumped backwards hitting the taller Trowa in the noise with the back of her head.

"Trowa! Are you ok?! I'm sorry!  I didn't mean that! I thought you were - nevermind." She said in one breath, looking up concernedly at him, her face tinged red.

Trowa nodded, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose.  "It's ok.  Nothing broken." He gave her a small smile, which visibly relaxed the anxiety inside her.

She smiled coyly at him.  "Oh really, now? Let me see that."  She raised her hands to him and he dutifully bent his head done.  "Hmmm…it looks like it needs some attention, come with me."  She led him to the empty bathroom next to the first one making noise.  Trowa looked at her curiously as she had a very serious expression on her face.  "Sit."  Midii pointed to the closed lid toilet.  "Now let me check that no extensive damage was caused."  She cupped his head in her hands and he looped his around her waist.  She was standing between his legs since the bathroom was designed for one person only.  She couldn't have planned this better; silently thanking the people in the bathroom next door for the idea, she proceeded to give Trowa a serious expression, mock examining his face.

"Hmmm…I have the perfect cure." She said in a teasing tone.

"And that would be?" Trowa was going to like this game.  Midii leaned in and gave his nose a soft kiss. "Ah, yes that is a good cure…but I think I hurt elsewhere."

"Really? And where would that be, my good patient?" Midii ran her fingers lightly across his hair.

"You'll just have to find out." And they both had the grin of kids getting to open their presents early.

         Five minutes later…

"Umm…excuse me? Hello?  Please open the door, my daughter is throwing up and she needs to use the bathroom."

"Ma'am? Excuse me.  Hello?  Anyone in there?  Call Noel.  Tell him to get the master key, we need to open this bathroom.  Sick kid!"

A scrambling was heard inside the bathroom; the flight attendants, the sick kid and her mother all heard sounds of people trying to move in a cramp space.

Midii stuck her head out the bathroom, just as Noel (one of the flight attendants) returned with the master key.  "Umm…"

"Excuse me!"  The mother pushed Midii out of the way only to come face to face with a dishevelled Trowa.  The mother gaped at him and her little daughter chose that moment to throw up all over the front of his jeans.  Midii felt everyone's eyes on them and blanched as the smell of vomit hit her nose again.

         ******************************

Wufei Chang watched with a critical eye as the Christmas dancers pranced around the ballroom to the tune of 'Joy to the World'.  He had volunteered to work on Christmas Eve and Lady Une had made him head of security at the annual Christmas Ball.  It all worked out nicely for him, he hated the whole Christmas cheer and excessive jolliness and being head of security allowed him to avoid going and dancing in the actual ball.  He would be sitting in a comfy leather chair surrounded by video screens in one of the upstairs rooms of Peacecraft Mansion with a hot cup of coffee.  He frowned slightly, thinking that his work partner, Sally Po would be off duty and attending the Ball.  He cringed when he thought of her dancing with some oafish man, but it was her fault she didn't want to work tonight.  And he had asked her nicely too!  

"It's a very uplifting song, isn't it?"

Wufei blinked out of his reverie and turned to who said that, mildly surprised that she was there.  "A little early, isn't it, Sally?"

Sally smiled, her blue eyes twinkling.  "I just thought I'd see how security was going."  She flicked away some of the fake snow on her shoulder, that had blown over to them when someone had opened the balcony windows.  "Isn't this the same decorations they used last year?" She shrugged, not really minding since her dress would look great against a white background.  'More opportunity to tease Fei.' She smiled again at her partner.  "Sure you won't come to the Ball, Fei?  An hour won't kill you."

Wufei vehemently shook his head.  "I said last year's Ball would be my last one.  No more. Ever."  The events of last year's Ball still bore fresh wounds on his mind.  

"Oh come on, Wufei.  No one's asking you to dress up, this year."

"I said no woman!"  He glared at her and Sally just gave him a look reserved for little children.

"Fine Wufei." She said in an affected tone.  "Here.  Just in case I don't see you tonight.  Merry Christmas."  She pulled out a small wrapped box out of a bag Wufei hadn't noticed she was carrying and gave it to him before walking out the double doors of the ballroom.

Wufei watched her surprised, looking at her figure before looking at the wrapped box.  He swore to himself.  Sally had given him a present! Damn that woman!  Hadn't they both agreed NOT to give each other presents?  Well he had agreed not to give presents…especially after last year's debacle.  The cheerful Christmas wrapping stared up at him accusingly.  Growling, he motioned to a Preventer standing guard at the balcony door.  "I'm going on break.  I'll be back in ONE hour.  No one is to enter the ballroom, unless they are on this list."  Wufei handed the Preventer a palm pilot. 

"Yes, sir!"

Wufei saluted and pocketed Sally's present, making his way quickly down the hallway and out to the gardens to his car.  "Silly woman." He mumbled to him self, as he drove slowly down Relena's driveway.  Now he HAD to get Sally a present.  He was about to turn into the main street, only to slam down on his brakes.  Before him was a devastating accident.  Police everywhere.  Wufei hastily got out of his car and walked calmly to one of the policemen.  "Preventer Chang.  What happened here?"  He coolly surveyed the carnage.

The policeman stared at his upheld badge suspiciously before nodding.  "Haven't seen this sort of devastation in my 25 years in the force.  The guy just lost control."

"No ambulances?"

"No one was seriously hurt but all those kids are definitely not going to get their Christmas plushies, that's for sure."

Wufei nodded blankly, still watching police trying to clear the road of people who had ruthlessly attacked an overturned toy truck full of the newest kid's plaything - the miniature Mad-nug spin top.  Wufei shook his head.  Kids these days…what next? Yellow fighting monsters?  He shuddered to think.  He could see traffic piled up past the horizon.  There was no way he could drive to the city.  Getting back into his car he backed away from the main road and back to Peacecraft Mansion.  He had seen a scooter in Relena's garage…

         ******************************

"Uh, I'm sorry ma'am but this is the wrong doll."  Quatre Winner smiled apologetically at the sales assistant, who promptly melted on the spot.

"Huh? What? Oh, really sir?! I'm so sorry, let me get the right one! Be right back! Don't go anywhere!" She blubbered, stumbling back into the storeroom to retrieve the right gift.

Quatre sighed.  He wasn't even Christian and he was celebrating Christmas.  After some of his sister's had converted to Christianity and had children who all wanted presents from their favourite uncle, the Christmas season had taken a whole new meaning.  He had to get gifts for _everyone._  Even the ones not Christian!  If he got a gift for one sister and not the other…Quatre shuddered thinking about the last time _that_ happened.  His kind personal assistant had gotten most of the gifts (he had his sisters tell him exactly what they wanted, he couldn't take anymore guessing wrong) but he hadn't wanted her to be working on Christmas Eve so he told her that he would get the last few gifts at Cinq's biggest (and the only one opened on Christmas Eve) department store (his assistant had given him a pic of each present to get and where to get them).  He was beginning to regret that decision as time went by and he hadn't gotten one gift yet.  Quatre looked at the picture of the doll he was supposed to get his niece (his fourteenth sister's) and the doll on the table.  Their faces looked the same, except the doll had blue eyes instead of green.  Would his niece notice?  Could he take that chance with a gift?  He contemplated it before dismissing the thought. 'Better be safe than sorry.' Quatre nodded to himself, looking around the doll section of the department store.  A little distance away he could see a huge sign saying 'Santa's Village of - " the last part being concealed by a plastic Christmas tree.  A tune was playing over the department's speakers, it took him a little while to realise they were playing 'Oh Christmas Tree.'

"Here sir!  Is this the doll you wanted?  It's the last one left." said the flushed sales assistant.

Quatre looked at the picture than at the doll.  "Yes," relief evident in his voice, "This is the one.  May I have this wrapped up?" He handed her his platinum credit card to purchase the doll.

The girl vigorously nodded, "Of course sir! …But I don't - this section doesn't wrap presents." She sounded very disappointed.  "But I can direct you to the gift wrapping department!"

Quatre smiled pleasantly at her and glanced down at her nametag.  "Thank you, Ivy.  That'll be great."

Ivy blushed and gave him directions to the wrapping department.  She looked like she would have given him a guided tour but her supervisor glared at her so she stayed put.

"Left past Reindeer City…into Santa's Village and right at - " Quatre didn't finish his memorizing of the directions when he bumped into someone causing both of them to fall onto the ground.  Packages went everywhere.  

"I'm so sorry! I didn't see - Here let me help you up."

Quatre quickly picked up the girl's dropped packages, hoped his gift hadn't broken and put on his most apologetic smile before he looked down at the girl he knocked down.  The first thing he noticed were the spilt eyebrows and a strangled sound came from his throat, as he dreaded looking further…into light green eyes.  Definitely not the ice blue ones he was hoping/dreading to see.  

"That's ok!  I'm fine!  Thanks for picking up my gifts!"  

'Definitely doesn't sound like her at all,' Quatre mused.  'Unless she was on a sugar rush.' He tried to imagine Dorothy on a sugar rush…

"Umm…are you ok?  Hello?!"

Quatre snapped out of his daydreams as a pale hand waved back and forth in front of his face.

"Oh! Sorry.  Are you ok?"

The girl nodded happily.  Quatre nodded back, the girl's smile was infectious and he smiled back, glad to see he hadn't hurt anyone during this mad last minute Christmas dash.  "Ok then.  I have to pick up a few more things.  I'm glad you're ok."  He waved, wished her a Merry Christmas and continued on his way to the wrapping section.

Standing in line for ten minutes he finally reached the front desk.  Before he could say anything the lady in front said in a bored voice.  "Breakable or non-breakable?"

Quatre looked a little taken back but he took out the boxed doll and showed it to her.  "It's breakable - Oh no!"

That snapped the wrapping lady out of her bored state, as she stared at the gift, Quatre was staring at.  'Weird guy.  Those reindeer don't look broken. He's cute though, with that expression,' she thought.

"That girl!  She must have my doll!  Oh just great!"  Quatre stuffed the box of singing reindeer back into the bag and barged out of the wrapping section.

         ************************

Person who is screaming I'm ALIVE! :

Anywho…the next part will be out in soon, sooner than JtML, I promise! ^_^ …Unless, no one likes this… -_- Oh well!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!! Oh and R&R, C&C and all that other stuff…I've gotten rusty… ^__^


	2. Chapter Two: Fa la la la la la la Oh Ne...

DISCLAIMER: Something something something.  

Hi Midii! Of course you can post this (don't know why, but you can!)! I haven't seen Colin yet in 'Earnest', I have to wait for it to come out on dvd, grrr… ^_^  Hi funniebones2k! Sure I'd love to critique! I can't do it well, but I will try! ^_^  Hey MJ! Just post it anyway, without the prequel! (write that later!) ^_^ To everyone else who reviewed!! THANKS!!! Every review is like a Christmas gift! ^__^

No Red Letters!

A GW Christmas tale…

Chapter Two:  Fa la la la la la la - Oh Nevermind!

"But sir - "

"Urgent Preventer business." Wufei gritted out for what seemed like the twelfth time.  How many more times would he have to flash his Preventer badge, before this oily faced, high pitched teenage boy got the message?

"I understand sir, but I can't let you park in the store!"

Wufei death-glared him but it didn't seem so dangerous since he was sitting atop a pale pink Vespa scooter that had the initials R.D. emblazoned on the front in girly gold writing.  "Listen this scooter does not move from this spot or I will personally have you fired and never allowed a hundred metres within this department store.  Understood?"

The check-out boy was about to protest again when he thought of all those gifts that he had bought that were depending on him keeping this job to pay them off.  His girlfriend wouldn't be pleased if she had to get her diamond ring repossessed.

"Ok sir, but you have to come back in an hour, my shift finishes then."

Wufei nodded impatiently and parked the scooter in between a red and black scooter.  "Fine." He said curtly before heading out of the department store's automobile section.  He looked at the thousands of people milling around.  He craned his neck upwards looking at the nine floors of shops that made up Cinq's biggest department store.  This was going to be a nightmare. 'Damn you woman.' He thought, 

'If she had just not gotten him anything, then he wouldn't feel honoured (never guilty) to give her a gift back as well.'  He needed to find something Sally would like. 'What did Sally like?' Wufei wondered suddenly.  They'd known each other for years now…what had he gotten her last year?  He shuddered as the unwanted memories came back. 'Don't think about that Wufei!  Get that stupid onna a gift and get out of here!'  As he passed a window full of elves singing 'Santa Claus is coming to town'…

"Wufei?"

Wufei turned around surprised.  "Quatre?  What are you doing here?"

Quatre looked as surprised as Wufei.  "I was about to ask you the same question."  He smiled warmly at his long-time friend.  "It's great to see you again, Wufei."

Wufei nodded in agreement and shook his hand.  "Good to see you too, Quatre." Then a little light bulb went off in his head. "…Say Quatre, you know a lot about women, right?"

A perfectly confused expression lit Quatre's face. "Uhh…what?"

"I mean you know what they want, right?  What they need?"

Suffice to say, all men have dirty minds and Quatre's no exception, so his face automatically turned red.  "W-What?"

Wufei looked at his friend like he was the dimmest person alive.  "Presents, Quatre!  Gifts!  You know things they keep telling us not to get them but they're actually telling us TO get them!!"

"Oh…OH! Presents!  You want help with buying gifts?" The red tinge was slowly leaving Quatre's face.  "Let me guess, Sally, right?"

Wufei nodded glumly. "That onna got me a gift, when we specifically said we weren't getting each other anything.  So now I need to get her something or she'll have the advantage!"

Quatre looked at Wufei's reasoning sceptically.  "Sure, Wufei.  Whatever you say."  Wufei was about to protest but Quatre continued, "I'd love to help but I need to find this girl who's taken my doll."

A perfectly formed eyebrow arched, as Wufei tried to comprehend what Quatre had just said.  "You won't help me because a girl took your doll?"

Quatre nodded. "Yes so - "

"A girl took your doll?!" Wufei exclaimed incredulously.

"Yes!  I bumped into this girl and our packages got mixed up and she took my doll for my niece by mistake!" Quatre said exasperatedly.  "And now I have a box of plastic singing reindeer!"

"I see."  Agreed Wufei, glad his friend hadn't gone off the deep end, as he had expected when he said 'a girl took my doll'.  A plan formulated in his mind.  "How about I help you find this girl and along the way you can help me find a gift for Sally?"

"Ok sure.  I need someone's help, there's just too many people here."  Then Quatre proceeded to tell Wufei exactly what the girl looked like.

         ************************************

Meanwhile on a different department level…

"Dorothy! There you are, c'mon, there's these Christmas singing sling-backs that I think would make a wond - Are you listening to what I'm saying?  Dory?"  Bethany waved a hand in front of her cousin's face.  No reaction.  She stared at what Dorothy was staring at.  It was a red off-the-shoulder evening gown.  "That's a nice gown but I thought Relena preferred pink?…Dorothy?  Will you stop staring at that gown! Answer me!"  By this time, Bethany had grabbed Dorothy by the shoulders and had spun her around to face her.  This movement finally caused Dorothy out of her stupor and shake away from her cousin's grasp.  She pointed to the gown.

"Do you know what that is?!"  Her voice was a low growl and her ice blue eyes made Bethany feel like she had frostbite.

"Ummm…A nice dress?" Bethany felt suddenly silly for shaking her cousin.

"A nice dress? A nice DRESS?" Dorothy made stabbed her finger into the material.  "This is EXACTLY the same dress I had tailor-made!" By this stage, she didn't care who heard her scream, and one of the sales assistant's looked like they were calling security.

Bethany looked around nervously, "Uhh…Dory…that's not possible…Ummm…maybe you should get some fresh air."  She began to drag Dorothy away from the offending dress.  "Lets go to the food court, and have a sund - "

"I don't want to go to the food court!  I want to know how my $  - " the amount of the dress was drowned out as the live band playing Christmas carols reached the apex of 'Deck the Halls'.  Dorothy's rant had continued throughout the chorus, " - in this claustrophic hellhole!  AND how could it only cost $ - " The chorus again drowning out the rest of what she was saying.

Bethany tapped against her ears, as Dorothy's tirade finally finished.  "If you didn't want a sundae, you could've just said no."

If anyone had taken a photo of Dorothy right then, they would have wondered if the camera had been broken since she seemed red all over.

"Excuse me, miss?  What seems to be the problem?" Her angry rant was stopped short as two burly security guards stood in front of her.

'Oh, this is not going to be good.' Bethany thought, trying to figure out a way from Dorothy hurting one the security guards.  "Oh! Hello officers!  Problem? No problem!  My cousin and I were just heading to the food court!  Weren't we, cousin dear?" She shot a meaningful look at Dorothy, who had regained some of her self control but was very much on the edge of lashing out.

"Yes." A very angry sound of teeth grinding together made Bethany hasten her dragging of Dorothy.

The two security guards just looked at each other and shrugged at the two blondes heading down the escalators.  Each thinking, 'Blondes.'

Behind them sitting unnoticed, next to the red gown was a plastic bag containing an unwrapped Christmas gift.

"Calm again, cousin?" Bethany ventured to say after ten minutes of complete silence between the two (well actually, only from Dorothy as Bethany was humming "Hark the Angels sing").

Dorothy gave a withering look but no reply.  'It's only a dress.  It's only a dress.' She repeated to herself like a mantra.  Only, her mind would come up with other things that disturbed her concentration, like 'You're going to wear a dress that's been bought in a department store.' 'Your dressmaker will die' and 'You spent fifty times more than it's actually worth.'

"I know what'll cheer you up!" Bethany rummaged through her plastic bags for the Christmas gift she had bought Dorothy.  "Now where is that…" She muttered, not finding the box of singing plastic reindeer.  The realization dawned on her.  Her eyes grew wide and she shrieked in Dorothy's ear.  "That man!  He stole my present!"

"What are you talking about?!" Dorothy said in a vicious tone, not entirely directed at her cousin.

"When I went to look for you a bumped into this cute looking guy - but he STOLE MY PRESENT!" Bethany knocked over the chair she was sitting on as she got up.  "I can't believe this!  He stole the perfect gift, that I got you!"

Dorothy stood up more slowly, a painful plan formulating in her mind.  "Do you remember what he looked like?  Good.  I'm in need of some venting.  Lets go find this thief."

Several people sitting around them in the food court felt their insides churn at the way Dorothy had said that.  Someone was going to be eating food through a straw for the next few months, that's for sure.  

"I bumped into him on the fourth floor, lets start there!" Bethany glad her cousin had temporarily forgotten about the designer gown that she had bought that wasn't actually a designer gown.  Though, at the back of her mind she felt slightly guilty for blaming that cute blonde guy she had bumped into.

         *****************************

This was ridiculous.  Absolutely, positively, horribly ridiculous.  He was Heero Yuy, perfect soldier, the man who landed on his head from a fifty feet drop and still survived to kick ass.  Why couldn't he tell Relena to just wear one of the hundreds of other gowns she had in her closet?  Relena beeped the horn at the car behind her for beeping at her for cutting into their lane while coming from a no turning right sign.  This was why.  Relena was frightening when she was angry.  More than frightening - downright bone-chilling-peeing-in-your-pants frightening; that was Relena angry.  So Heero sat quietly in the Diablo as Relena gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles devoid of blood as they headed towards the only department store open on Christmas Eve.  At least this was a marked improvement on fifteen minutes ago…

         Fifteen minutes ago…

"WaJB Partners.  We don't decorate we create.  Our business hours are weekdays 9am to 5pm and Saturday 12pm to 5pm, Sunday closed and on all public holidays we are closed.  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" The receptionist at the front desk of the National Building (which housed several businesses), stopped the recorded message just as it started playing 'Gloria'.  She smiled apologetically at the couple in front of her.

"I'm sorry Miss Darlian, it seems the company has no one on this holiday's - "

"Would it be possible if you could connect me to the CEO of WaJB Partners?"

"Well, ma'am, those are private lines and - "

"Do you know who I am?" Heero stared at Relena in surprise even he couldn't contain it.  This was the first time Relena had ever used her position like that.

"Yes, ma'am but I - "

"Please, Miss - Partridge - think of it as me owing you a favour.  I could get you anything you want."

The receptionist looked a little uncertain but you could tell she was coming round to the idea. "Well…"

"Anything you want, Miss Partridge."

The girl finally nodded and she lifted up the vid screen so Relena could see.  "They said only in emergencies…This I an emergency, right?"

"Oh definitely."  Relena looked at the screen as it lit up.  A man wearing a straw hat came into view.

"What? Partridge! This better be an emergency!" screeched the old man, in the background you could hear the ocean.

"Mr Wander."

"Miss Darlian!  What a surprise!  I trust you're calling about the wonderful 'White Christmas' décor?"

"Not exactly Mr Wander.  I ordered 'Traditional Christmas' décor this year.  Last year was 'White Christmas'."  Heero rather admired how Relena seemed so civil when moments ago she was barely able to control the seething.

"What?  We are never mistaken at WaJB!  You ordered 'White Christmas!'"

"No I didn't.  You have somehow mixed my order.  I need 'Traditional Christmas' by tonight.  I want - "

"Huh?!  Impossible Miss Darlian!  You can not back out and swap just because you don't like it last minute!"

"How can I back out if I was never in?!" Relena had lost the calm voice and was now looking ready to throw the vid screen at the wall.

"You ordered WHITE CHRISTMAS!  I have the order right here!" (Mr Wander showed his pocket organiser to the screen)  "Nothing about traditional Christmas!"

"Relena - "

"WHAT?!" 

Heero took a step back as Relena went back to her conversation with WaJB Partners CEO…

Back in the car…

It had taken one angry phone conversation, a broken vid screen and a sobbing receptionist for Heero to finally found out why Relena was so livid about the decorations…her designer gown was the same colour as the table-cloth they were going to use in the ballroom.  So here he was, heading towards Cinq's largest department store to protect Relena (more like protect people from Relena) as she went to get a new evening gown for tonight's Christmas ball.

         *****************************

"Where is everyone?" Hilde asked for the third time.  'Everyone' being Relena, Heero and the old gang.  She and Duo had been walking around the hallways of Peacecraft Mansion for the last ten minutes and everyone was either busy shuttering around preparing for tonight's Christmas Ball or just not there.  They finally reached the ballroom and were surprised at the familiarity of the decorations.  Even right down to the song, 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas' being played through the speaker systems.

"Isn't this what they had last year?"

"You know I thought the same thing but I haven't seen Relena to ask her about it."

The couple turned around to face the woman who had spoken to them.

"Sally!" Hilde hugged the older woman while Duo planted extravagant kisses on both her cheeks.

"Hilde, Duo, its wonderful to see you guys again!  How was the trip?"

"As pleasant as it can be.  They mixed up our luggage though, but it'll be here by six."

"Hey! Is that the catering?" Both women watched Duo's face light up as he waved an excuse about making sure all the food was good to eat.  Hilde watched in exasperation as her husband began to terrorise the caterers.  She turned to her female companion, "How have you been, Sally?  We haven't seen you since October.  Where's Wufei?"

Sally smiled as they started to walk around the ballroom.  "I've been great; Lady Une assigned us to paperwork duty after the raids in November.  Wufei didn't take it well but he's happy that he's working tonight, though."

Hilde didn't look surprised at this.  "I guess he hasn't gotten over last year's Christmas?  Duo packed a few 'things' for Wufei; even I couldn't talk him out of torturing Wufei.  Duo thinks it's a Christmas tradition now."

"Well Wufei deserves what's coming to him."

"Ah, I'm guessing Fei did something?" Hilde hid a small smile, as Sally nodded in confirmation.

"Sometimes I don't know why I bother. Oh great! It's not here."

Looking down at what Sally was looking at, Hilde found that they had walked to one of the tables being set up for the dinner.  She looked at the taller woman, "I didn't know you were looking for something?"

Sally smiled apologetically, "Sorry Hil.  I left my Palmtop organiser here when I gave Wufei his gift.  I was half way home when I realised I had left it here.  That's why I'm here now. But it looks like someone's taken it.  Great." She sighed and looked upwards, "what a perfect start to Christmas, hmm?"

"Maybe someone just took it to security?  Let me get Duo and we'll find it together."

"You already have me, honey."  The two women turned to face Duo, who wrapped an arm around Hilde.  "Find what, Hilde?  Did you lose something? Sally?"

"Her palmtop organiser's gone.  It was just here."

"Was it shiny black Yoshiba with silver lining?" asked Duo seriously.

Sally nodded in surprise, "You've seen it?"

"Yeah, Timmy - one of the caterers - had it, he's gone to return it to his manager.  I think he thought it was his manager's organiser.  He's just in the back."

"Well, lets go find him then.  Thanks Duo."  Said Sally; Duo beamed at her and the trio followed the crowd of caterers going in and out of the doors leading to the kitchens.  From the head cook, they discerned that a large plate of seafood had been dropped and Timmy had gone to their main supplier to get more and to return the manager's organiser.  Since the couple had nothing to do with no one home and their luggage still in the air, they decided to accompany Sally to find Timmy at the main food supplier that happened to be happily situated at the centre of the food court at Cinq's largest department store.

         *****************************

"Welcome to the City of Cinq.  We at Cinq Airlines hope you've had an enjoyable flight and wish you the Merriest of Christmas' and the Happiest of New Year's!  We wish you a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas  - " and on and on it went as people started to disembark Flight 1225.

Catherine stretched luxuriously in her first class seat.  'What an enjoyable trip.' She thought, as one of the flight attendants smiled cheerfully at her and handed over her carry bag.  A few 'Merry Christmas's' and 'Happy New Years' later she was in the waiting room looking for her brother and his girlfriend.  She spotted Trowa first since Midii was sitting down, looking slightly green.  "Trowa!  Midii!"  She walked over to them, hugged her brother and looked at Midii concernedly.  "I really enjoyed that flight, are you ok Midii?  I have some air sickness tablets, if you want some."

Midii nodded a negative, stood up albeit shakily and gave her a smile.  "I'm fine, I think I just need to get some air."

Trowa made a move to go with her but she waved him off telling him to stay with Catherine and she'd meet them at the luggage area.

When she disappeared into the crowd, Catherine gave her brother a once over.  "Did she get sick? Is that why you changed your pants, Trowa?"

Shaking his head, he was about to tell her what had happened (minus the bathroom incident) when a little girl and her mother walked by.

"Mummy, I want a double cheeseburger!"

Catherine could see her brother pale slightly, like he was thinking of something unpleasant. "Are you ok, Trowa?"

He nodded and she didn't press the matter.

"There's yours!"  Catherine pointed out to a medium-sized suitcase, as she and Trowa were now standing near the luggage conveyor belt, getting their luggage and waiting for Midii to meet them there.

"I'm back." Catherine smiled at Midii's slightly healthier complexion.

"Are you ok?" Trowa beat his sister to the question.

Midii just nodded, looking at Catherine's concerned face, searching if she knew about what had happened on the plane.  Finding that Catherine's face betrayed no knowledge of what had transpired she felt lighter.  "I'm ok, Trowa, Catherine.  Hey, is that your suitcase, Cahtie?" Distracting Catherine momentarily, Midii and Trowa shared a look of understanding.  They weren't going to tell her; they were just going to have to find a new airline to fly on.

A large black suitcase tumbled down the belt; underneath it was Midii's suitcase.  As it got closer to them a stench drifted to their noses, Midii suddenly pictured a little girl but there were no little kids with weak stomachs around.

"Urgh. What is that smell?" Catherine waved her hand to and fro, in front of her face.  A small group of passengers gathered around morbidly curious about the offensive odour.

"It's not my bag." Midii huffed defensively behind a cupped hand.  Two workers from Cinq Airlines signalled for the belt to stop and they looked at the black suitcase with uncertainty.   
"Looks like something's leaking from the bag.  Can you see the name tags?"

The other worker shook his head.  "Get a trolley we'll put these two bags in quarantine."

"What?  Wait can't you just take the one on top?  That's my bag underneath it!  I can assure you, that smell is NOT coming from my bag!" Midii said indignantly.

"Sorry ma'am but we'll need to put these in quarantine." He pointed to a few other bags around the main one.  "Take these as well."

He started to shoo people away from the belt, "Sorry, ladies and gentlemen.  We will endeavour to get this under control as soon as possible.  Please if you see your luggage being taken please follow me to the Cinq Airlines office."

Midii motioned to her two other companions that she would go ahead, sort this out and meet them outside.  As the black suitcase was wheeled away from the scene, more dripping…goo rubbed away what was on the written nametag.  It now resembled - 'UO AX LL'.

Midii kept her head down, trying not to make eye contact with any Airline worker just in case they had been on her flight.  

"Hello ma'am, sorry about the delay.  Which one was your suitcase?" A friendly woman with her nametag covered in green thistle, which obscured her name.  The woman looked at what Midii had been looking at.  "Oh! You like my little Christmas decoration?  It hides my name though. I'm Carol."  She smiled again and pointed again to the luggage behind the glass window.

"Its that one, Carol." Midii smiled back, glad that she had not seen any flight attendants from her flight yet.

"Ah, I see." She looked down at the clipboard she was carrying.  "I'm sorry, Miss - "

"Midii Une."

"Miss Une.  Your luggage has seemed to be damaged the most.  Whatever was inside that bag - " She pointed to the big black suitcase, " - completely soaked through into your suitcase."

Midii pressed her forehead against her hand and leant forward.  This was not how she had pictured Christmas Eve to be like.  "Are you sure?  I really need my suitcase."

"Positive, ma'am.  I believe your entire contents have been ruined. BUT Cinq Airlines will gladly compensate you for whatever you have lost."

'Great, just great.' Midii glared at the offending black suitcase.  She silently cursed the person who owned that bag and wondered how much worse could the day get.

"Ma'am if you would follow me, I'll bring you to our manager's office to fill in compensation forms - "

"That's ok, Carol.  I was just wondering if those forms could be sent to where I'm staying?  I can't wait a few weeks to get compensated, I need certain things today."

Carol nodded, "Of course, ma'am.  We at Cinq Airlines endeavour to make this as trouble-free as possible.  If there is anything else we could help you with…?"

"Actually yes, there is.  Can you tell me if there are any clothes stores open today?"

         ******************************

Person who does realise that Christmas is over:

I can still write xmas fics after Christmas, right? ^_^ Is there a plot to this? Yes, I just like to ramble on! Lol, I''ve got the next part nearly finished (big shock) I'm hoping for this to be finished by New Year!

R&R, C&C, all that…

Oh! And Season's Greetings to everyone!!! ^__^


	3. Chapter Three: Always Keep the Receipt '...

DISCLAIMER: People (not me) own GW.

O_o This is getting very long… hehe, hope people like the new chappy!

No Red Letters!

A GW Christmas Tale…

Chapter Three: Always keep the receipt, 'cause no one ever likes what you get them!

"Please, Miss - Mary - Could you just call her over the PA system, please?" Quatre pleaded with the lady behind the information desk.  He upped his megawatt smile a notch.

Mary looked unconvinced.  "Sir, I can't call someone over the system if you don't know her name."

Wufei rolled his eyes in annoyance, he had been roaming around for a gift for Sally while Quatre had been talking to the information desk lady.  He had just come back and he knew both of them had little success.  Why did Quatre have to buy a doll that was the last one left?  Why couldn't this lady just read the girl's description over the PA system?  Why did Sally get him a gift?!

"Listen…Miss.  My friend here, has lost his, his daughter.  She's a very imaginative child and doesn't like to be called by her first name.  If you call it over the PA system, thousands of people will hear it and she'll never come out of hiding." Wufei finished, surprised at how easily he could lie.  Quatre looked even more surprised.

"Is that right sir?" Quatre turned to the person who had asked the question.  Mary looked at him uncertainly.

"Uhh, yes.  Yes it is.  Please just read out her description."

"I would still need a name…my supervisor - "

"Call her Sally.  She likes that name."  Wufei supplied and Mary finally got it. 'The looks that passed between the two…' She thought, 'Why didn't she see it before!  This girl…was THEIR daughter!'

She tapped the mic, she had only refused Quatre since he was handsome and she liked the way he pleaded…but now that he had this other man…She sighed, 'Why are all the good-looking ones taken?'

"Attention Level Five shoppers, can Sally, blonde hair, green eyes, forked eyebrows and pale please come to the front information desk?"  She repeated the request again, before nodding to the two men.  "You'll just have to wait, now."

Quatre nodded in thanks and they all waited for 'Sally' to turn up.  After a few minutes, Wufei gave Quatre a look.  "She's not on this level."

Quatre agreed and turned to Mary.  "Do you think it would be possible if you could broadcast that message to all the levels of the department store?"

"Not from this information desk sir.  If you go to our head of security on level eight, they might let you broadcast it." Mary smiled at him. "But it's highly unlikely."

Quatre thanked her for her help and the two former pilots headed to the lifts to level eight.  If they had gone past the escalators going up they would have seen their 'Sally', sadly they bypassed it and missed her completely.

            *******************************

"Why would he go up, Bethany?  If he stole something he would be going down." Dorothy argued to her younger cousin while glaring at a man in a Santa suit.

"I just have a feeling."

"You had a feeling for the last four levels." 

"You're just impatient to hit someone, Dory."

Dorothy didn't add, 'Yes I am and you'll substitute nicely,' since she had regained most of her composure but her anger was still at boiling point.

"Oh!"

"Did you see him?!"

Bethany shook her head, "No, but look at these plates!  Oooh…little baby Jesus'! How cute!"

An evil death-glare answered her.  Dorothy roughly pulled her cousin away from the printed plates.  "There's an Information Desk.  Go ask about this man."

Bethany gave her a hurt expression but did as she was told.  "Hello! Umm - " She squinted down to look at the nametag on the lady sitting in the information booth.  " - Merri!  Hmmm, your parents must have a sense of humour!"

Merri cringed; she hated to hear Christmas jokes. "Yes, ma'am.  Is there anything you would like?"

"Oh! Yes, I was just wondering if you could call someone over the PA?"

"Name?"

Bethany frowned a little.  "Well I'm not sure, but I can describe what he looked like and what he was wearing!"

Merri looked bored.  "Sorry, ma'am, we're not at liberty to meet such requests."

"Really?" Bethany looked slightly crushed.  "Not even this once?  I mean it is Christmas and all…"

A fake smile spread across Merri's face, "Sorry we can't."

Nodding in disappointment, Bethany was about to head back to Dorothy who was some ways off when she came face to face with another Information Desk lady.

"Fork eyebrows!"

Said eyebrows shot up in surprise.  "Excuse me?!" Bethany exclaimed.

The lady (who was Mary, returning from her coffee break), waved her hands in front of her.  "Sorry ma'am.  I didn't mean any offence.  Your fathers were looking for you…You're older than I thought you were, Sally."

"Sally? Fathers?" Bethany repeated rather stupidly.  Dorothy came up to her and looked at the two department workers and then at her cousin's confused face.

"Excuse me, what's going on?" 

Mary looked at Dorothy then back at Bethany.  Both women were strikingly similar except their eyes and complexions differed somewhat.

"Ma'am, are you Sally?"

"No I most certainly am not called Sally.  This is Bethany.  She doesn't have fathers."  Dorothy wondered if the whole world was playing a joke on her.  Now everyone looked confused.  "Did you see a blond, blue eyed man wearing a Christmas jumper with reindeer all over it?"

Mary nodded. "Yes, he was looking for someone looking like her and he was with a man with black hair and they went to level eight to security."

"Thank you."  With that Dorothy started to pull Bethany away from them and towards the lifts.  "Bethany? Are you ok?" She asked in a quiet voice.  Her younger cousin had lost the cheerfulness and she had a feeling she knew why.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Ummm, Dory, I think I need to get some air." With that she disappeared into the still thousand strong crowd.

Dorothy cursed the sales lady and the blonde man who had taken her cousin's gift.  Since she couldn't hit the lady for just talking she waited impatiently for the lift to open so she could vent her anger against the little blonde thief.  As people crammed into the lift, Dorothy found herself thinking of someone who fit the description Bethany had described. She dismissed the thought. 'Why would he be here, of all places?'

            *********************************

Heero was beginning to wonder if Relena knew any road rules at all.  Not only had she sped through red lights and stop signs to get to the department store but she had parked in a no parking area.  Relena didn't seem to care.  'These sort of occasions are hazardous to her health,' he thought, trying to keep people from getting hurt as she walked past with an extremely determined look on her face. 

"Relena I think it would be better if..." The rest of what he was saying died in his throat.

Relena turned around impatiently,  "What Heero?  Heero? Heero come on!"  She stalked to where he stood motionless in front of a glass window.  "Heero, lets move - " The rest of what she was going to say was silenced by the cold hurt look in Heero's eyes.

"If you didn't like it, you could've just told me."

Relena's anger at WaJB Partners lessened considerably as she looked into Heero's eyes.  "What are you talking about, Heero?"

He turned his gaze to the glass window and she could see a row of brand new motorised scooters on display.  She was about to ask the question again when her eyesight fell on a pale pink Vespa scooter with elegant gold letters on the front. 'What was her scooter doing on display?'

"Heero I don't know how my scooter got there…you don't think I returned your Christmas gift, do you?" Relena had found Heero's present for her a week ago in one of the guest rooms.  Completely by accident of course, it wasn't like she had gone looking for Heero's present and she really loved this gift.  She loved the sound of the wind as she whizzed around the grounds of Peacecraft Mansion.

"It looks like you did." Heero answered coldly.

"Heero - "

"Forget it.  Lets buy your dress and get out of here."  With that he started to walk to the escalators.  Relena jostled past shoppers trying to reach him, her want of a new gown momentarily forgotten.

"Heero!  Wait!  I'm telling you!  I didn't return your gift!"

He ignored what she said, but still kept a watchful eye out for her, it was his job after all.  Inwardly he was thinking about all that effort he had put into her gift.  Getting the right colour, modifying the engine so it would go slightly slower than usual and even all that leather gear he got her! And what does she do? Returns it!  He couldn't believe that it had slipped his notice.  Maybe he didn't really know her well at all, if he couldn't tell she had just been pretending to be happy with her gift.  While he was contemplating these grave thoughts, a trio of happier people had entered the department store.

            ****************************

"Wow." Duo whistled out loud at the amount of people and the sheer size of the department store.

"There's so many people…Sally do you know where the food court is?" asked Hilde looking around in awe like her husband.

"There's three…The supplier's at the biggest one…on level two. We're going up, I guess."  They managed to navigate their way through the crowds with relative ease and were at the food suppliers in no time.

Duo spotted the man they were looking for nearly straight away, "Hey! There he is! Hey! Timmy! Wait!"

Timmy, a man short and slight (although appearances were deceiving) turned in surprise to face the braided man.  "Duo?  What are you doing here? Did you follow me?"

"Actually yes." Timmy looked up at who had spoken.  Sally continued, "You have my organiser." She pointed to the palmtop in his breast pocket.

Timmy looked at it in surprise. "Really?  I thought it was the manager's… So sorry, miss!"

After the whole affair was sorted out (quite easily, too) Duo offered to help him bring back the food supplies but Timmy declined, wished them a 'Merry Christmas' and was off.  The trio were in the process of deciding what to do now, when Hilde's cell phone went off.

"Hello? Hi Pagan!"  She walked a little bit away from the other two and Duo watched her face change. 'It's not good news.' 

When she came back, Hilde's expressions confirmed his suspicions. "I can't believe it!  Our luggage got damaged.  The airline called Relena's to tell us; Pagan said that they would be sending over forms to sign.  Great! Now we both have nothing to where for tonight's ball!"

Duo shook his head, "I could just borrow some of Heero's clothes. No biggie.  You could lend some of Relena's! She won't mind."

Hilde nodded forlornly. "I know she won't mind but I wanted to wear the dress I had bought…"

"We could look for something here.  Unless you want to avoid the crowds." Suggested Sally.

Hilde perked up.  "Shopping? I'm always up for it! If I can find something now, it'll be great! Even if I don't find anything, I'll at least have gone shopping!"

A feeling of impending doom crept up on Duo.  "Uhh…You two go ahead, I'll just see the dessert bar."

Hilde looked at her husband, "Are you sure?"

"Definitely!" With that, a kiss, a few goodbyes and an allocated time to meet up later, they separated; Sally and Hilde in the direction of woman's clothing and Duo to the ice-cream section.

            ********************************

A definite twitch was developing in Trowa's shoulder.  They had barely spent ten minutes in this department store and he was already suffocating.  Nothing he or Catherine could say would convince Midii to just borrow one of Relena's gowns for tonight's ball.  Trowa would never understand women and their fascination with wearing new clothes.  Midii had pointed out that she had never met Relena and it would be imprudent to just ask her to lend her a gown.  So here they were, in Cinq's biggest department store looking for a gown.  He knew Midii was just feeling nervous about meeting all his friends (she had only met Quatre) and she wanted to make the best impression possible.  He, on the other hand, didn't know why she was so worried.  They would love her like he loved her.  His eyes widened as he realised what he had just thought.  He loved her…

"Trowa you don't have to shop with us, you can go to the sports level or the food court," Catherine could tell her brother was at a discomfort.

He smiled at her. "Yeah, I think you're right."  He waved good-bye, told them that he'll meet them at the food court in an hour and disappeared into the crowd.  Unbeknownst to his two female companions he wasn't heading towards the food court but the jewellery section of the department store.

Midii frowned slightly, 'he had just left so willingly without even a goodbye kiss…' She shook away the thoughts, 'Trowa just hates crowds, that's all.'  She pushed the doubts to the back of her mind and focused on the task ahead.  "Ok, Cathie.  We have 59minutes and 23seconds to find me a gorgeous evening gown!"

"Women's wear is on level three.  Lets go!" Catherine and Midii linked arms and marched towards the escalators, to the tune of 'A Little Drummer Boy' that was being played by a motorised monkey.

********************************

'The heating in this building needs to be maimed and shot.' Wufei thought grimly. He was boiling in this elevator made for thirty people but fifty people (plus baby prams) had managed to cram in, all stopping at each level AND no one seemed to be going out! 

"Wufei, what DID Sally get you, anyway?" asked Quatre who had a feeling the grandma behind him had pinched his butt but he didn't want to turn around and find out.

Wufei looked sheepish.  "I haven't opened it yet."  Moving around to reach into his jacket pocket he took out the gift Sally had so nicely wrapped and given to him.  It was smaller than a paperback and larger than a ring box.

"Let's see what she gave you, so we can get her something along the same lines." Suggested Quatre, who pressed forward slightly his face getting redder by the second.

Wufei nodded. 'Good idea, why didn't I think of that' he muttered to himself.  Just as he was about to open the present, a crackly voice was heard from the elevators speakers.  "Ladies and Gentlemen, we would like to announce that level seven will have 50% off everything for the next fifteen minutes."

Before they could comprehend what was happening, everyone in the lift surged out, carrying Wufei and Quatre out with them onto level seven.

"No! MY GIFT!"

Quatre stared dazed at his friend who had been able to scream above the frenzied rush of shoppers.  He could see Wufei chasing after a lady with a baby pram who was rushing towards a whole bunch of shoppers snapping up the sales.

Wufei, through years of training as a Gundam pilot and a Preventer was able to dodge, weave and still keep in eye contact with that baby pram that was now carrying his gift from Sally.  Seeing an opening, he dived, his hand contacting with the metal leg of the pram. "Gotcha!"

Too bad his training didn't involve avoiding big angry mothers who think you're trying to kidnap their kid.  "AAH!"

Wufei ducked the next swipe the mother had aimed at his head with her heavy as bricks bag.  "Stop! Stop!  I wasn't trying to - " He tried to scramble away from the woman, only to be trampled on by crazy shoppers.  "Urg…help…"

"What's going on here?" A big booming voice from above said.

Wufei felt two big hands pick him up from the floor, his head felt like someone had kicked it (they probably did).

"Guard!  He tried to kidnap my baby!" Followed by sounds of sobbing from the mother was heard.

Gathering most of his senses back, Wufei shook his head weakly.  "I wasn't trying to steal anything!  Listen, I'm a Preventer…see my badge…" Wufei felt around his pockets for his badge.  It was gone. "I've lost my badge! Damn!  It must have fallen - Hey!"

The security guard shook his head as he lifted him slightly of the ground.  "Don't it explain it to me, son.  You're coming wit me."

"Wait! I'm a PREVENTER!  Hey! Are you listening to me?!  I'll have your badge for this!" Wufei looked around desperately for Quatre but he couldn't spot his friend in the myriad of customers; most of them hadn't even realised a would-be 'kidnapper' had been caught.

Quatre tried to move quickly against the suffocating crowd.  "Wufei?!" His voice was lost in the din.  Where was he?  This was impossible!  I'll never find him! I'll never get that damned doll!  His patience had worn so thin, it was almost non-existent that when he bumped heavily into a tall blonde woman he didn't apologise.

"Excuse me!"

Quatre was about to snap back, 'You're excused!' when he realised who it was.

            ******************************

"Heero! I'm telling you, I didn't return your gift!" Relena and Heero were nearly on level two since Relena had decided that she would have to go to the automobile section where her scooter had miraculously appeared and demand why it was there in the first place.  

Heero just looked sullen.  Secretly though, he was glad Relena had momentarily forgotten about her gown and was now trying to please him.  "Fine, Relena.  I believe you." He said in that cold voice.

"Heero…" Relena tried the puppy dog look that always worked for Quatre.  Heero looked like he was falling for it.  The moment was broken when a little kid splashed coke on the front of her jeans. "Eh…" Relena nodded to the apologetic mother, patted the unassuming kid on the head, and glanced at Heero who was trying to hide a smirk.

"Not funny, Heero." But a smile crossed her face anyway, since at least Heero didn't seem so mad about her 'allegedly' returning his Christmas gift.

They reached the front of the scooter section, just as the shop assistants were rotating.

"Hello? Excuse me? I need to know who brought that scooter in." Relena pointed to her pale pink Vespa.

The oily faced, teenage boy looked at is replacement and then back at Relena.  "Ugh…ummm, ma'am that's not for sale." He choked out meekly.

"I know it's not for sale, it's MY scooter."

The boy looked petrified to be standing in front of a beautiful woman with a scary looking man hovering behind her.  "…Urk…It - it was brought by a Preventer."

"A Preventer?"

He nodded so vigorously that Heero wondered if his head would roll off.  "Yea..umm…A preventer, Chan? Chen? Chang…Something like that…" He seemed to shrink into himself as Relena looked at him thoughtfully and Heero glared at him.

"Wufei Chang?"

"Yeah! That's him! He said he needed to park it in here because of security reasons."

Relena had a triumphant look on her face.  "Thanks, we'll be going now."  

"I told you!  I would never return anything you'd buy me, Heero," She mentally added, 'except for those horrible earrings you bought me last year.' She kissed his cheek.  "Now lets go find my gown!"

"Aren't you even going to get the scooter back?"

"I trust Wufei.  I'm sure he brought it here for a reason." Relena didn't add that she would be having a 'talk' with Wufei about borrowing things without asking her.

Heero nodded, resigned to his fate.  At least he could look forward to having a little 'chat' with Wufei later.

            *******************************

Duo was trying to balance a double choc with hot fudge sundae (extra nuts) and a chocolate strawberry thickshake in one arm while trying to finish his bean burrito and slice of pepperoni pizza in the other hand.

"I don't know how you can eat that together."

Duo turned around in surprise, nearly spilling his thickshake. "Trowa! Hey man! What're you doing in this crazy place?"

Trowa took the sundae from Duo, making it easier for him to balance.  "I was on my way to the jewellery section.  I think I took a wrong turn."

Duo nodded understandingly.  "I know! This place is HUGE! So, are you getting some last minute gifts, huh?" He managed to elbow Trowa, "Didn't know you were so disorganised! I already bought Hilde gifts, ages ago!"  Taking a gulp of chocolate and strawberry he continued, "I know where the jewellery section is, I passed it with Hilde and Sally," he then proceeded to tell Trowa about what had happened at the airport and the mansion.

"Really? That's why I'm here." They were now sitting down on one of the tables in the food court.  Trowa had just finished telling him about the whole airport fiasco.

Duo howled in laughter.  "So you and your girlfriend got banned from ever flying with Cinq Air?" He laughed so hard at the thought of uptight Trowa getting caught doing the naughty and then having a little kid vomit all over his pants, that some of the thickshake came out of his nose.

"It's not that funny, Duo." Trowa deadpanned.

"Heh, yeah it is!" And Duo continued to laugh, accidentally knocking over his choc chip hot fudge sundae on an unsuspecting passer-by.

"Hey!"

Holding his sides, Duo stood up and tried to apologise to the girl who was looking down at her smeared pants.

"Hey, sorry! Didn't mean to spill - Dorothy?!"

            ********************************

"What did your dress look like, Hilde?" asked Sally, as she and Hilde walked through the many evening gowns on display.

"It was off the shoulder with - Like this one!" Hilde pointed to one of the gowns, "Only it was in a dark red colour.  It would've looked beautiful against the white Christmas décor." She said a little wistfully.

"Don't worry, Hil.  We'll find a gown as good!  Hey, how about that one over there?"

"Hmm…Duo would love the plunging neckline…" Hilde giggled, "Then again he would hate it if every guy talked to my boobs."

The two companions laughed, only to be cut short by a ringing.  "Oh, excuse me, one moment," Sally flipped open her cell phone as Hilde signalled that she would walk a bit further down.

Running a hand over the flimsy material of one dress, her eyes caught sight of a gown nearly all the way on the other side of the level.  From that far distance, Hilde swore that the gown was calling her.  It looked like a perfect fit…Forgetting about Sally she walked quickly to the gown…

            *******

"How 'bout this one?" Catherine held the gown to her chin and swayed to the right and left in front of the full-length mirror.

Midii scrunched up her face.  Catherine laughed.  "Ok, not this one."

"I'm never going to find anything." Midii looked despondent as she put back a black taffeta gown.

"Yes you will.  Don't worry Midii, we'll find you the perfect gown for tonight." Assured Catherine.  "How about that one?" She pointed to a gown a little ways off.  Before Midii could agree or disagree, Catherine had gone off to get it.

'Hopeless.' Midii thought, staring at herself in the mirror.  Here she was trying to find a knockout gown in a little less than half an hour.  How was she supposed to impress all of Trowa's friends?  How about if they didn't like her because she was disorganised enough to have nothing to wear?  'Stop being silly!'  This department store was driving her to madness.  She huffed upwards, making her fringe look like a cockatoo.  Maybe she should just buy that black - Her eyes widened as she saw a slight glimmer at the corner of the full length mirror.  Twirling around she saw her evening gown about ten metres from her.  It was perfect, it would show off her curves while still making her look delicate.  She already knew what jewellery to wear, thanking god that she had put her jewellery in her carry bag instead of her suitcase.

"Perfect." She tried to pull it off the hook it was hanging on when she noticed another hand holding the other side of the hanger.  Grey eyes met blue ones.

"Sorry, this is my gown." Midii said with a polite smile.

The woman with short black/blue hair smiled back, "Sorry, but I had it first."

One of the shop assistants could see that a problem was about to arise and she quickly came to their aid.  "Ma'am's? Is there a problem?"

"Yes this lady has my dress."

Midii's smile grew wider, "No, this is my gown, the lady is mistaken."

The shop assistant frowned.  This was not going to go well.  "Uhhh…If I may - "

"Mistaken? No you're mistaken.  I had it first." Hilde frowned at the blonde woman.  She wasn't about to lose this dress.

"I. Had. It. First." Midii gritted out.  She wasn't about to lose this dress.

"It would look horrible on you!" inside Hilde felt a twinge of guilt for lying but not for long.

"Horrible on me? With your stringy black hair?!" Midii rationalised, 'If she can pick on me, than I can pick on her!'

"What?! It's mine!"

"No it isn't!"

"Yes it is!"

"Mine!"

"It's MINE!"

By this time the shop assistant had hurried back to her cashier's desk and had called security.  Two security men (who looked like they had just come out of the WWF) towered over the two bickering women.

"What seems to be the problem?"

Hilde and Midii hadn't even noticed, they were too busy trying to rip the gown away from the other's hands.

"Ok, break it up! Break it up!" Each guard picked up one of the smaller females while the shop assistant grabbed the gown before it could be torn to shreds.

"Put me down!" Yelled both Midii and Hilde while still being able to glare at each other.  The guards just shook their heads and hauled them off to the staff elevators to level eight.

"Hilde?" Sally called.  Where was she?  Sally had just gone to the restrooms at the other end of the level so she could hear the call on her cell phone and when she had gone out, Hilde was gone.  'She wouldn't have left without telling me, would she?' Sally dismissed the thought.  Hilde was too nice.  She tried to call her on her cell phone but there was an 'error in connection'.

"Sally?"

"Catherine?" Sally looked at the surprised woman looking back at her. "Merry Christmas!" They said simultaneously, hugging.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here with Hilde looking for a ball gown, but I can't seem to find her."

"Really? I'm looking for a gown as well - not for me but for Trowa's girlfriend, Midii Une." Catherine and Sally were now walking around the level.  "I can't seem to find her either.  She's the nicest person, Sally.  You'll love her.  She's really brought Trowa out of his shell."

Sally raised an eyebrow, "She seems like a nice girl, an extraordinary one if she can get Trowa to say more than two sentences!"

They shared a laugh and Catherine stopped near the end of the left side of level three.  "This was where I had left her.  I come back two minutes later and she's gone."  Just then a shop assistant walked by.

"Excuse me miss, but do any of the levels cause interference with cell phones?" 

"Oh, yes ma'am, When you pass level three, most networks can't get through, sorry."

Sally just nodded, "That's fine.  Is there another women's wear department?"

"Yes ma'am, on level six."

Thanking her, Catherine and Sally went up, convinced that Midii and Hilde had gone to level six for more shopping.

            *******************************

Quatre stood speechless as he stared at the woman in front of her, the retort forgotten.  Dorothy looked back shocked.

"What - what - ?"

"I - What - ?"

And then they fell.

            ******************************

Person who has to go back to work tomorrow *sob* :

Hmmm…I would like to point out now (since my sister asked me if this was going to get dark and angsty *cough* JtML) that this is NOT going to be dark and angsty!  ^_^ I'm just showing the psychotic side of Christmas… ^_~ 

R&R C&C flames!! E-mail!!! Ok!! I'll stop now!!!  


	4. Chapter Four: Be thankful that Christma...

Disclaimer: GW not mine.  …I was reading over my comments in the last chapter…heh…I did say that it would be finished before Christmas! You guys just probably didn't think it would be next Christmas… O_o   sorry! On with the story then!

No Red Letters!

A GW Christmas Tale…

Chapter Four:  Be thankful that Christmas only comes once a year…It takes a whole year to recover!

By: J.B. Santiago

Duo choked on his chocolate strawberry thickshake. What the hell was Dorothy Catalonia doing in a department store?!  Before he could gape any further, Trowa spoke.

"That's not Dorothy."

'Green eyes, a happy smile.' Duo felt silly, "Heh! Sorry! Of course you're not her! You're smiling!" He shook his head. 'Fooled by those eyebrows!'

Bethany stared at the two men in confusion. 'Must be some of Dorothy's friends! I knew she had some!'

"Hi!" Bethany extended out her hand to Duo, who wiped his bean-burrito stained hands on the sides of his pants before shaking hands.  "I'm Bethany Montague! You know Dorothy Catalonia? She's my cousin!"

"I'm Duo Maxwell, and this ever perceptive one is Trowa Barton."  Duo replied.  "I didn't know Dorothy had anymore relatives," thinking that Mariameia was the only one.

Bethany nodded eagerly, "We're first cousins.  She's here right now looking for a gift for Relena."

"Dorothy's here? I wanna see that!" Duo said, chuckling at the thought of Miss-high-and-mighty jostling with the 'commoners'.

"Are you shopping for gifts as well?" By now, Duo had cleared away enough room for Bethany to join the two of them at the round table.

Duo shook his head, "But Trowa here was just about to go find something in the jewellery store."

Bethany smiled at Trowa, not noticing that he was critically observing her.  "Oooh…Jewellery. I love jewellery! Need any help?"

Trowa was about to reply with a negative when Duo cut in. "Hey, Good idea! He's getting a gift for his girlfriend.  It would be good to get a woman's opini - yeow!" Duo bent over to rub the shin Trowa had just kicked.  

Bethany saw the look that passed between the two.  She got the impression that Trowa didn't seem to like her…Why?  An idea popped into her head.  "Did you and Dorothy date?"

Thickshake sprayed everywhere as Duo howled with laughter.  Trowa glared at Bethany, already blaming her for now wrecking his only other good pair of tight jeans.  "No.  We didn't date." 

"Oh - God! …That's - so - funny!" Duo wheezed out, slapping his fists hard on the table.  Several tables around them had already been cleared; shoppers didn't like the idea of getting bits of thickshake and burrito on their clothes.

"Oh." Bethany shrank back from the glare, amazingly missing out on being hit by Hurricane Duo.  'Well if that's not it…then…' 

"You and Dorothy don't get along!" She seemed rather pleased that she figured it out so easily.

Trowa gave her a blank look.  "We don't even know if you are who you say you are."

"Yeah, buddy.  She could be an undercover reporter for the Cinq Tabloids, hellbent on putting you and Dorothy together JUST to wreck your happy future with your girlfriend, Miss Une!"  Duo rolled his eyes, "Oh c'mon Trowa! Lighten up! It's the season to be merry or something…I'm sure Bethany is who she says she is." He smiled at her encouragingly.

"Hey! I can prove it!" Bethany whipped out her wallet that had those plastic covers meant for cards but she had put pictures in them instead.  "See?  This is me and Dory when I was two…Here's one when I was four…oh! And this is so cute! Dory and me in the kiddy pool at five!"

In the back of his mind, Trowa felt rather embarrassed for Dorothy.  Thank god Catherine had no baby pictures of him to show around.  Duo on the other hand, was already planning to copy them and blow them up, to show for the next ball…especially the one where Dorothy's 7 years old, in a yellow polka dotted bikini in the kiddy pool.

"I have more recent photos! These one's we took in those passport booths.  I had to drag her in; she hates having her photo taken." Bethany stated matter-of-factly.  She smiled at Trowa again, trying to see a change in his demeanour.  Trowa couldn't believe he was actually starting to feel sorry for Dorothy of all people.  He reminded himself to get Catherine another gift, to remind her NOT to show embarrassing pictures of himself.

"Ok fine.  You can come with us."  Trowa nodded, his mind rationalising his decision.  So she was Dorothy's cousin; she didn't look like she was someone planning to take over the world - more like Duo in a candy store...how dangerous could that be?

If Bethany could smile wider her face would have cracked.  'It would be so fun to get to know Dorothy's friends better…AND find a gift for Lady Une as well!  She had gotten a gift for Mariamiea but had forgotten about Mariamiea's guardian.  With Trowa knowing much more about her, it would be the perfect time to get the perfect gift!' She thought.  

So off they went, to the jewellery section, stopping over at the Koldak Photoshop (at Duo's insistence) to check the prices of getting photos blown up to the size of a billboard.

                                                                                                                                              ***************************

CRASH!  The smell of plastic melting and wires sparking of each other were heard.

"Ow…" Quatre shifted slightly, his legs had managed to tangle themselves into the power cords that were lighting up the display in front of him.  

"Get off." A voice muffled out from underneath him.  Quatre's eyes widened remembering what he had seen just before he tripped on the cords and tumbled over the short picket fence surrounding the Christmas display.

"Dorothy?! Are you okay?" He tried to get up and help her up as well but instead his arm somehow got caught in the display and he ended up toppling over her again.

"Argh! Get off!" Dorothy had wriggled out from underneath him, her foot still caught up in the power cords but she had enough balance to stand leaning heavily against the display.

"Sorry! Are you ok?" Quatre looked desperately apologetic as he tried to shake off the tinsel that had come off the display and was now covering him.  He held out his hand to her but she batted it away.

Dorothy herself was covered with shiny bits of Christmas decorations.  She pulled out an annoying piece of plastic pine lodged in her golden tresses.  "I'm fine.  Next time you decide to take a trip, Mr. Winner, don't take me with you."  She glared at him and he tried to offer another apologetic smile before offering his hand again to help her out of the display.  Before she could accept or refuse a little boy holding his mother's hand pointed in their direction and said, "Mommy! Mommy! Is Santa ok!?"

Both of them simultaneously looked at the boy, then at each other and then at the display behind them.  There sitting in a high backed, walnut coloured chair was a plastic Santa Claus…only this Santa was missing its head.  Wires protruded from the base of the neck and black smoke was slowly wafting upwards.

"Oh no…" Quatre gasped before he rushed to the now headless Santa Claus and began to drag him into the brightly lit Santa's Workshop behind the high backed, walnut chair.

"What are you doing?!" exclaimed an incredulous Dorothy, who was turning red not just from the heat of the light bulbs everywhere but from the shoppers who were now milling around the display looking at them like they were the newest zoo exhibit.

"Just get the head!" 

Exclaiming indignantly but picking up Santa's head, mainly to get out of the shoppers gaze than to obey Quatre, she followed him into Santa's Workshop, where the main controls for the display were situated.  Quatre placed the robotic Santa on the ground and examined the robotic head in Dorothy's hands.

"How are we going to fix this?" He murmured.

"We?  YOU'RE the one who decapitated Santa in the first place!" Dorothy huffed.  The workshop was like a sauna, since the generator was in there.  She could hear the mutterings of the crowd outside who were trying to peek through the spray-painted-tinsel-covered windows.  She didn't want to go out there until the crowd went back to frantic shopping.

Before Quatre could retort back, the plastic door sung open and someone poked their head in.

"Sir, ma'am, you'll have to come with me." Said the burly security guard.

"What?  It was an accident!" exclaimed an exasperated Quatre.

"Why do I need to come with you? It was his fault!" Dorothy glared at Quatre who glared back; the only thing separating them was Santa's head (whose eyes were blinking rather scarily).

"My fault?! If you hadn't - "

"Please sir, ma'am.  You can come with me quietly or I'll make a public spectacle of you both." Said the security guard firmly.

Dorothy doubted they could make an even bigger spectacle of themselves but she wasn't about to be outdone by Quatre.  "Fine I'll go with you."  She couldn't resist sticking out her tongue at Quatre who restrained himself from doing the same.  They followed the guard amid the stares of shoppers who pushed their children behind them as they walked to the staff elevator; they were on level eight before they knew it.  

The two blondes sat side by side in silence while they waited for the store manager to appear.  Quatre discreetly surveyed his unlikely accomplice.  She wasn't carrying any packages and she didn't look like she had spent very long at the department store.  He knew under the delicate features was hiding an indomitable spirit.

Dorothy subconsciously straightened up.  She had a feeling Quatre was looking at her, not that she wanted him to or anything…'Argh! Stop thinking about him! You're supposed to be angry!' She raised her head slightly higher; the perfect pose of rich snobbery.

"Sir these two customers damaged one of the Christmas displays," Explained the security guard to the store manager who had just walked in and had looked like he had just come back from refereeing a deathmatch.

The manager smoothed his hair and beard and sat down behind his desk, where he fumbled around a bit until he found his nameplate (It said J.C. Joseph).  Mr Joseph looked at the two with disapproving stares.

"Do you know how much damage you've caused to one of our most beloved displays?" he began, "Not to mention the stress you've caused countless children who saw you decapitate Santa Claus."

Quatre and Dorothy started to protest but Mr Joseph raised a hand to silence them.  "I'm going to have to ask you to pay for the damages and insist that you never shop here again."

"Gladly." Dorothy muttered darkly.

Mr Joseph ignored the comment while Quatre took out his wallet and was about to ask 'do you take cheques' when another security guard walked in and halted in surprise.

"Hey! Don't let him escape! He's stolen packages from level four."

Before Quatre knew what was going on he was lying face down with a knee in his back.

"Yeow! Hey! Ow!" Quatre struggled in vain as the three-times-heavier security guard pinned him to the floor. "Dorothy! Help!"

Dorothy knew that smirking at a time like this was just adding to her colder than ice image but she couldn't help it.  This was not something you saw everyday, after all.  "Um, excuse me.  I think you've made a mistake.  There's no way Quatre Winner would be stealing packages." Well there's my good deed for the year, she thought sarcastically.

The security guard looked at her evenly and said, "Sorry ma'am but he fits the description.  Tall, blond, blue eyed wearing a red reindeer sweater with gold embroidery and khaki slacks."

Dorothy was about to protest when she realised she had heard that description before.  Mentally slapping her hand on her forehead, she remembered Bethany saying the exact same description only she had used the words 'cute' and 'hot' as well.  'Quatre can't be the guy Bethany bumped into…then again who would wear that hideous sweater?' Her thoughts were interrupted when an irate woman in her mid forties and clearly not aging gracefully, flounced in, a security guard trailing after her.  She amazingly ignored Quatre being pinned to the ground and was about to head straight for the store manager when she spotted Dorothy standing to the side of the desk.

"YOU!" The woman lunged at Dorothy who deftly sidestepped only to somehow topple over the security guard who was sitting on Quatre.  A very loud 'oof' and groan was heard as Quatre swore that he must have broken his ribcage while Dorothy outraged at the comment that implied she was 'heavy' enough to break his ribcage began to advance towards Quatre but was being held back by a security guard who was also trying to keep an irate middle-aged woman at bay as well.

At time like these J.C. Joseph wondered if someone in the cosmos somewhere was having one gigantic laugh at him.  'Next time, go to the Caribbean when the Christmas season starts.' He thought.  He took out his gold plated gavel (inscribed 'To my son, use it well') and banged it against his desk, giving everything on it a little jump as well as everyone else in the room.  Savouring the silence for a few precious moments, he pointed to the middle-aged woman.  "You.  Why are you trying to hurt her?" (he used his gavel to point at Dorothy who was trying to glare at everyone).

"She hit me over the head with a bag and took off with the last of the 'singing reindeer'!" 

"I did no such thing!" Dorothy yelled, but Mr Joseph banged the gavel down again and everyone quietened.

Quatre was kneeling on the floor, desperately trying to go unnoticed as he slowly pushed the bag containing the singing reindeer under the couch beside him.

"What's in that bag, young man?" Mr Joseph could see a guilty face miles away, and Quatre's face was projecting 'guilty' like there was no tomorrow.

"Ummm…Well, you see…" The security guard lifted Quatre and the bag up from the floor and Quatre gave the bag to Mr Joseph.

"Singing reindeer…one of our best sellers.  Do you have the receipt for this?"

"No but if you just let me explain - "

"See! They're all in this together!" the middle-aged woman jumped in.

"I didn't take those damn - " Dorothy shook her fist at the woman.

"Then who did?" Mr Joseph asked calmly.  Dorothy clenched her teeth together.  She wasn't about to implement her cousin.

"Hey…wait a minute…your eyebrows are darker…" The woman squinted at Dorothy, "…Your clothes…You didn't hit me on the head, that girl that was with you did!"

'Well there goes the idea of keeping Bethany out of this.' Dorothy thought gloomily.  'I'm going to slaughter her when I see her.'

"Ok ma'am, please follow one of our security guards down to level seven.  You'll be able to pay for this - " Mr Joseph gave the middle aged woman the bag with the singing reindeer, " - And you two are going to the 'timeout' area." 

"What?!  You can't do this to me?!  I'm Dorothy Catalonia!"

"I don't care if you're the President of the ESUN!  You have not only been caught damaging our displays but you and your accomplice," he pointed to Quatre, "have been caught red handed in a shoplifting scam.  When we find this ringleader of yours (re: Bethany) you're going straight to gaol!" Mr Joseph shook his head in dismay, "You're lucky that lady didn't press charges of assault."  As the two blondes were led away, he sighed to himself.  What was the world coming to?  Such young people and on Christmas Eve too…

                                                                                                                                              *********************************

Hilde fumed.  She was sitting in a 'timeout' area (in reality a storeroom converted into a makeshift prison cell) while that ingrate of a woman sat on the opposite side of the room, the only things separating them were stacks of boxes.

Midii glared back at that woman with the dark hair that briefly made her think of Trowa but concluded that Trowa was a hundred times better than that woman.

Hilde wondered if she could throw her shoe at this distance at that woman without hitting the boxes.  Then she thought against it.  Why waste a good shoe on such a woman?  If Duo were here, he'd have thought of a way of getting back at the pasty-faced woman.

Midii checked her cell phone for the hundredth time, the phone still registering no reception.  She sighed and continued her glaring contest with the woman on the other side. 

She couldn't take the icy silence anymore.

"It was my dress." Both of them said at the same time.  Hilde and Midii stared at each other before Hilde let out a giggle.  Midii's features relaxed into a half smile. 

Hilde went around the boxes separating them and introduced herself.  "I'm Hilde Schbeiker-Maxwell."

Midii shook the offered hand.  "Midii Une."

"So… Why did you need the ball gown?"

"My luggage was damaged on the flight over here from L3."

"Really? Me too! I mean, my luggage was damaged but I came from L2."

A more comfortable silence fell on them.  Now that they had something in common, it wasn't as awkward.  "Did you fly with Cinq Airlines?"

Midii nodded in confirmation.  "I arrived about two hours ago."

"We must have missed you by half an hour.  I don't think I'll be flying with Cinq Airlines any time soon."

'I've been banned from flying with them.' Midii silently added.  This Hilde person wasn't so bad; she contributed the snippy-ness to the stressful holiday atmosphere.

"Agreed.  Airlines these days." They shook their heads at the same time.  Midii thought she would broach the subject that put them in this 'timeout' area in the first place.

"That dress would have looked great on you, Hilde.  Your hair isn't stringy at all."

Hilde disagreed vehemently.  "No, no, it would have looked beautiful on you.  With your spotless skin and blond hair.  It definitely would've have looked better on you."  

"No it wouldn't. It would have looked better on you."

"Don't be silly, Midii."

"I'm not being silly, it would've looked better on you."

"No."

"Yes."

"No it wouldn't have!"

"Yes it would've!"

"Listen! It would have looked better on you!"

"FINE!"

The two women found themselves squaring off against each other before they both realised what they were doing.  Midii giggled and before long the two of them were sitting on the floor laughing at their childish behaviour.

"Hilde lets just disagree to agree." Midii said, between wheezing.

"I disagree." Hilde giggled back.  

"God, this season is twisted."

"Agreed.  If only my suitcase wasn't damaged, I wouldn't be in this crazy place."

"Tell me about.  If I ever get my hands on who damaged my suitcase…" Midii pretended to strangle the person who had wrecked her suitcase.

"Hmmm… I'll join you." Hilde, fully relaxed now, searched through her pockets for a candy cane Duo had put in her jacket.  "Want some?"

Midii took the hook part of the candy cane Hilde had snapped in half.  "Thanks.  How long are you going to be on Earth for?"

"A little under two weeks.  We're staying at a friends place.  I wish we could stay longer but we have a business to run on L2.  How about you?"

"Really? So am I.  Only I'm staying at my boyfriend's friend's house.  Heh, what a mouthful.  And I don't have a business on L3, I'm a freelance investigator and since my boyfriend's in the circus, it suits us pretty well."

Noticing the slight change in her demeanour when Midii mentioned her boyfriend's friends, Hilde guessed, "You haven't met your boyfriend's friends, right?"

A surprised look graced Midii's face.  "Am I that easy to read?"

"No, it's just I know the feeling.  When I first met my husband's friends I was a nervous wreck.  I'm serious!" Hilde nodded, "They're the nicest people though.  You say your boyfriend is from the circus?  He's friends are probably very open-minded people."

"They're not circus people though."

Before Hilde could continue a loud thump was heard on the wall they were leaning on.  Pressing their ears against the smooth surface they listened.

            *********************************

Wufei was annoyed.  No, that was a lie.  He was more stark raving, homicidally mad.  He was sitting in a department store 'timeout' area and the only thing keeping him company was Sally's Christmas gift.  He was in this hellhole because of it.  Wufei glared at the offending, now unwrapped gift.  Sitting opposite him on top of a pile of stacked empty boxes was a brightly decorated figurine that said, "Don't be a humbug".  Only he had managed to break it since it wouldn't stop saying, "Don't be a humbug."  So far he had somehow controlled the urge to hurl the gift straight into the wall.  A soft beeping sounded, and Wufei glanced at his watch.  The time indicated that the boy in the auto shop had just changed shift.  

"Great! Just great!" He kicked an empty box for good measure.  If someone bought that scooter, Heero would kill him.  Relena would tell Lady Une.  Just the thought of the Preventers finding out he drove around in a pale pink Vespa was too much for him to bear.

"Don't be a humbug, don't be a humbug, don't be a humbug, don't be a hum - "

Wufei covered the little speaker with his hand, still careful not to break it.  It muffled the sound slightly but he could still hear it.  It was beginning to sound like Sally's voice. 

"Damn you Sally!" Wufei was definitely not going to get her a gift now.  If he could just get out of this stinking place and scream at her in person.  Pacing back to the door out, his shin knocked against something protruding from a box momentarily causing him to over balance and the gift flew out of his hand.  He belly dived for it, knocking down a whole stack of boxes against the wall.

"Gotcha." He held the still speaking figurine.  He's elation at a superb catch was short-lived however when the boxes he had bumped into did a poor imitation of the leaning Tower of Pisa before succumbing to gravity.

"Ahh!" And a few Chinese expletives and kicking and punching of empty boxes later, Wufei emerged from the din, the figurine still cupped in his hand.  An odd glint shone in his eyes, raising his arms to the ceiling he yelled at it, "Come on!  Bring IT ON!  Is that all you can throw at ME?! I am Chang WUFEI!  I am the DRAGON! You can't defeat me!!"

"Wufei?" 

Wufei stumbled back and landed on his backside at the sound of the muffled voice from above.  'No wait…It sounded like it was coming from behind the door…'

Quatre and Dorothy were pushed lightly into the room by the security guard before the door slammed in their faces.  A crazy looking Wufei was sitting in the middle of it, tightly holding a brightly coloured figurine in his hand.

"Wufei! Why are you in here?" Quatre looked at the mess surrounding his friend and wondered if he had asked a stupid question.

"I am the dragon?  I am the dragon? If only more people could have heard you!" Dorothy said melodramatically, placing a hand on her forehead in mock faint.

Getting up, gingerly he glared at Dorothy.  "What are YOU doing in here, hmm?"

Dorothy glared back, all mock out of her.  Quatre started counting back from 100 in Arabic.  His situation just got a whole lot worse.

            **********************************

Heero was getting dizzy from all the different gowns Relena had paraded in front of him.  He couldn't tell the difference between chiffon and cotton but she still insisted on his opinion.  How many more "hn's" could he say before she realised his inability?

Relena was of course oblivious to her Heero's plight.  "None of them right." She murmured to herself.  Maybe that black taffeta… Her thoughts stopped as she glimpsed a little red number in the far end of level three.  And she was off.  Heero barely had time to move as Relena whizzed past customers with expert skill that made Heero wonder how she would have done piloting a mobile suit.  Reaching her intended target in no time, Heero concluded, she would have done very well indeed.

"Heero!  This one! What do you think? It feels so soft!" She semi-twirled with it admiring the way it looked against her skin.  "It would be perfect against the white decorations."

Heero agreed whole-heartedly. Now this dress was perfect for her. "It's perfect.  Should I get the sales assistant?" Hinting heavily, on how much he really wanted to get out of this place.

"I'm trying it on first!" 

Heero sighed as Relena did another dash and was gone.  He really didn't like the holiday season at all.  A slight clunk was heard as a bag that had been leaning against the wall fell forward.  Heero, immediately suspicious and making sure Relena was still a good 20 metres away in the Change Rooms; carefully nudged the bag with his foot.  A doll's head rolled out.  Now Heero being the big brave Gundam Pilot and all, will never admit that he jumped back in surprise at the scary doll's head with blue eyes that were supposed to be closed, looked up at him.  Assessing that there was no danger, he quickly put back the doll's head in the bag and headed towards the change rooms.

"Heero, what's that?" Relena had just come out of the rooms, holding the gown possessively.

"Someone left this package behind the gown you were holding.  A porcelain doll, looks to have been damaged." Heero stated.

Relena nodded, "We'll bring it back to the info desk once I pay for this gown."

With that, Relena bought that beautiful red off the shoulder gown, returned the broken doll to the info desk and Heero drove them away from Cinq's largest department store.

"It's snowing quite a bit now, Heero." Relena sighed happily holding her boxed gown tightly while staring at the falling snow on the highway.  "Hopefully it'll stop soon.  I would hate to drive to the Mansion in this weather."

          *************************************

Person who is utterly amazed at the moment:

I finished another chapter!!! O_o Will it take me until NEXT Christmas to write the next one?? Tune in to find out! Hehe, I'm kidding!! I have the other chappy nearly finished!

*…That's what she said last time* ^_~

R&R C&C all that stuffy!!


	5. Chapter Five: Christmas is about giving

DISCLAIMER: Gundam Wing is owned by Bandai I think.  Or Sotsu or something like that.  Or it could be Sunrise.  Or Toei.  Or some other company in Japan that's making millions out of merchandise.  I'm not making money out of merchandise, unless someone wants to buy my GW box set? ^_~ It's practically brand new!

J.A. : stop trying to sell my birthday gift!

J.B. : I bought it! I can do what ever I want with it!

J.A. : Not when you've already given it to someone!

J.B. : You don't count as someone!

*J.A. whacks J.B. out cold with a Pringles container*

J.A. : BUHAHAHAHAHA!!!

J.B. : *_*

No Red Letters!

A GW Christmas Tale…

Chapter 5: Christmas is about giving…NOT! It's about PRESENTS!!!

By: J.B. Santiago

"Hello Mr. Joseph.  The security people told us to see you about our missing friends." Sally warmly shook the hand of the store manager.

Mr. Joseph looked like he needed a good holiday.  "Yes, yes.  About your friends." He began gravely enough for Catherine to exclaim, 'Are they ok?!'

"Yes, they're fine, except they're in the timeout area because they started to fight on level three.  Thankfully no one was hurt but I will have to stress that they shop else where next time they're in Cinq."  With that, J.C. Joseph led two rather embarrassed friends to the timeout area to pick up their 'brawling' companions.

"Midii!"

"Hilde!"

"Catherine!"

"Sally!"

Hilde looked surprised at seeing Catherine and the fact that Midii had said her name…what a minute! This is Midii's friend?  That meant her boyfriend was…

"Trowa!"

Midii looked surprised at Hilde, how'd she know who Trowa was? Or Catherine?…Unless…She was one of Trowa's friends!  Horrified at the horrible impression she must have made on Hilde (the one thing she DIDN'T want to do) she turned to apologise to Hilde but stopped short when she saw the wide grin on the German woman's face.

"What a small world!  So you're the elusive girlfriend of Trowa's, Duo told me about!"  She laughed as Sally and Catherine caught on and smiled broadly with her.  "I think you're perfect for Trowa."  

Midii laughed as well, Hilde was going to be a great friend and ally.  She didn't feel so daunted at meeting any more of Trowa's friends.  If they were all like Hilde, she had nothing to worry about.

The two of them explained what had happened on Level Three to Sally and Catherine, having a good laugh about it now and blaming the craziness of the silly season.  Catherine called her brother and informed him to meet them at the entrance, Midii would just borrow a gown from Relena (since Hilde would do the same).  The red, off the shoulder gown forgotten.

***************************

Trowa looked at the rows of rings on display at Bell's Jewels.  This had been the seventh jewellery store they had entered.  Bethany was a wealth of information and a small part of Trowa's mind thought she would make an excellent jewel thief.  He was looking for something that Midii would adore.  Something classy, not too over the top – elegant.  He wasn't buying an engagement ring, no, not yet.  This was going to be a promise ring.  

"That one."  

Bethany and Duo peered at what Trowa was pointing at.  

"Hey not bad, Tro-man.  Get that!" Duo not really knowing anything about jewellery nodded eagerly, they had passed a candy store and he really wanted to go back and buy the hot fudge rocky roads.

Bethany nodded slowly, "Actually Duo's right! But it needs something mo – oh! Get it engraved!" She nodded vigorously to Trowa.  "Write something that says 'you're serious' but not being pushy."

Trowa stared back at the ring.  An engraving on it would be a nice touch.  But what would he say?  A moment of inspiration came over him and he scribbled something on a piece of paper.  He handed it to the saleslady, indicating the ring he wanted engraved.  The saleslady was about to tell him price details when his cell phone rang, excusing him self, he answered.

Duo looked inquiringly at his friend's face.  Wonder who was on the phone?  He absentmindedly checked his cell, in case Hilde had called him and he hadn't noticed.

"Duo.  That was Catherine.  She said to meet at the entrance.  She said Hilde and Sally were with her as well."

"Really?  Oh good! We can finally leave this place!  Hurry and get your gift wrapped.  We might still have time to get my hot fudge rocky road."

Trowa agreed about leaving this place and he asked the saleslady for the price. 

"Sir that will come to - " The price cut off as Bethany accidentally knocked a sunglasses stand down (amazingly, nothing broken).  "Oops."

"Anyway, sir, the engraving will take about forty minutes.  There are many other gifts that need to be engraved as well."

Trowa frowned.  He needed to leave now and he knew the gift would be a whole lot better if it was engraved.

"I can stay and pick up the gift." Bethany offered, managing to disentangle herself from any other mishap.

Trowa was about to say 'no' when Duo loudly said yes, nodding his head.  "Good idea Bethany! You'll be attending the ball as well, right?  Tro-man you can get the gift off Bethany then.  That way your girlfriend won't suspect a thing! Women love surprises." Duo said all-knowingly.

Time was running out, so Trowa reluctantly agreed and was about to give Bethany the money to pay for the ring and engraving but she shook her head.  "I'll pay for it now, and you can give me the money at the ball."  She gave them a huge grin and a wave as they went off to the entrance.

"See, Trowa.  She's a nice girl.  Nothing to worry about." He chuckled, "I guess not the whole family is nuts."

Bethany looked at the paper Trowa had scribbled the inscription on.  "Oh, sorry - " She squinted at the saleslady's nametag, " – Belle.  Can you add Lady Une onto this." She scribbled under the note.  Trowa would be grateful that she fixed his inscription.  She had walked into the candy store and was about to buy red liquorice twists when two burly security guards stood beside her.  

"Ma'am.  You'll have to come with us, please."

Bethany's eyes turned into saucers.  "I haven't done anything!  I've never stolen anything in my life!! Well-except-when-I-was-THREE-and-I-took-a-lollie-from-a-candy-store-I-didn't-know-I-couldn't-do-that!  Please-don't-arrest-me!" She bawled the last sentence, shoppers clearing away from her.

"Uh, ma'am.  The manager just want's to speak to you." One of the guards shifted uncomfortably.  This girl shouldn't be given sugar, he thought.

"Oh! Ok, sure!" 

Famous last words…

            ****************************

Quatre shivered.  Dorothy and Wufei in one small storeroom with him in the middle was hazardous to his health.  At least they weren't speaking to each other, thought Quatre as he glanced at his watch for what seemed like the thousandth time that day.  When were they going to let them out?  He still hadn't gotten any of the other gifts he needed to buy! And the one gift he HAD gotten had been stolen!  Next Christmas he was going to hole himself up in one of his desert mansions and not come out until January.

Wufei grumbled something incoherent.

A 'huh?' had escaped Quatre's mouth before he could stop it.

"My badge! If I had that I'd be able to get out of this hellhole." Wufei glared at Dorothy who gripped onto a plastic candy cane decoration like she was about to swing it at Wufei's head.  She probably was except Quatre exclaimed, "Your badge?! I have it!" 

Wufei temporarily forgot he was angry, as Quatre fumbled around his pockets and fished out Wufei's foot trodden wallet.  "You must have dropped it when we got pushed out of the elevator."

Wufei looked like he would have kissed Quatre but he hammered his fist against the door until a security guard opened it and he shoved his badge into the guard's face.

"See?!  I'm a PREVENTER.  SEE?!"

The guard looked sceptical but he took it the badge and verified it with his superiors.  A few impatient minutes later, he came back.

"You're free to go, Preventer Chang.  Sorry about the mistake." The guard looked sheepish.  Wufei smirked in triumph, though the proud stance looked funny with the Christmas figurine in his hand still uttering, 'Don't be a humbug.'

"I'm lodging a formal complaint, don't you worry.  Now release Mr Winner as well.  I can vouch for his story." Wufei did his best Heero glare and the guard gave in.

"Ok, you're free to go too, I guess."

Quatre cleared his throat.  "Uh, Wufei how about - "

Dorothy's stranglehold on the plastic candy cane finally cracked it.  Wufei just smirked at her.  He was just going to leave her here?  The little SOB!  "I'd rather be by myself than be with you two anyway," she stared expectantly at Quatre to argue otherwise but Wufei said a little too cheerfully, "Ok! Bye now," and dragged Quatre out of the storeroom and slammed the door in Dorothy's astonished face.

"Wufei! We can't just leave her there!"

He snorted, "Yes we can."

"Actually sir, we've captured the person responsible.  Miss Catalonia will be released soon enough." Said the guard. 

"There you go.  Now let's get out of here." 

Quatre didn't look too convinced. "Well…I guess another few minutes won't hurt." He winced as he suddenly felt a pain near his stab wound.

"Don't be a humbug."

"Can't you turn that off?"

            ****************************

If Bethany had noticed the closing elevator next to her she would've seen the cute blond guy in the reindeer sweater standing next to a grumpy Asian man but she didn't.

"Right this way ma'am." The security guard showed her the manager's door.  

J.C. Joseph was expecting a manipulative, hardened thief not the childish, girl scout look standing before him.  Appearances were deceiving.

"You must be Bethany Montague.  A Miss Catalonia said that you bought the singing reindeer. Correct?"

Bethany nodded eagerly. "So where is Dorothy?"

Mr Joseph shook his head.  "I ask the questions.  How did you get the singing reindeer?"

Bethany looked surprised.  That wasn't the question she was expecting.  She decided to tell him everything since Mr Joseph looked like he had a kind face.  Taking a deep breath, she said, "Well, you-see-sir, I-just-flew-in-from-Hawaii – where I live – to-celebrate-Christmas-and-New-Year's-at-my-cousin, Dorothy's,-cos-we haven't-celebrated-it-together-since-I-was-seven-and-she-was-nine.-Anyway,-this-morning-she-found-out-that-the-present-she-was-giving-to-her-friend, Relena,-had-in fact-just-gotten-the-same-gift-from-this-Duke!-So-naturally-she-had-to-get-a-new-gift.- And-since-this-is-the-only-department-store-open-on-Christmas-Eve-in-Cinq-we went-here-to-find-a-new,-better-gift. And-she-was-looking-at-these-singing-reindeer-which-OBVIOUSLY-meant-she-wanted-me-to-get-them-for-her-and-DID,-then-I-accidently-bumped-into-this-hot-looking-blond-guy-and-we-accidently-swapped-packages-and-he-got-Dorothy's-gift-so-we-went-to-look-for-him-but-couldn't-find-him-then-I-went-to-the-food-court-and-met-some-of-Dorothy's-friends-and-I-helped-them-pick-out-some-gifts-then-this-security-guy-comes-and-tells-me-I-needed-to-go level 8 but I really need to find Dorothy's friends since I'm holding their gifts."  Bethany smiled cheerfully, exhaling loudly.

Mr Joseph just stared at her.  She hadn't breathed in once, since she had started speaking.  "Uh…I see.  So when you bought those singing reindeer, did you or did you not hit another woman to get them?"

Bethany raised her hand to her mouth, looking properly horrified. "Hit someone?! I've never!  I don't recall at all hitting another woman; there's so many people, I might have jostled into someone by accident but I've never hit anyone before.  Promise!" She upped the smile a notch and placed her right hand over her heart.

Mr Joseph couldn't tell if she was lying or not.  She seemed so innocent in the Girl Scout pose.  It was Christmas after all… "If you'd like to come this way Bethany, your cousin and that hot – I mean…that blond young man is in one of the timeout areas."  Leading the way down the corridor, to a door that looked a little worse for wear.

"YOU BAST - " Dorothy stopped short when she realised it wasn't Quatre or Wufei but her God forsaken cousin smiling brightly at her.

"There you are Dorothy! I met some of your friends! Really nice people, you should have introduced me to them sooner.  We went - " 

Dorothy lamped her hand over Bethany's mouth.  Mr Joseph signalled that they were free to go but emphasised never to shop at Cinq's biggest department store.

"Where is that little blond traitor." Dorothy mumbled under her breath as she and Bethany weaved in and out of shopping traffic heading towards the entrance.  Dorothy decided to hell with getting a new gift for Relena.  She would just give her the gift she had originally gotten, not caring that Relena had already received the same gift.  Bethany stopped over to the jewellery store to pick up Trowa's gift, Dorothy not paying attention since her thoughts centred around 'slaying a Dragon' and giving someone fresh stab wounds.

And then there were two less blonde's at Cinq's biggest department store.

            *******************************

"What do you mean, you sold IT?!"

Quatre tapped the side of his left ear, positive he wouldn't be able to hear anything through it again.  The salesperson at the Bike shop looked shell shocked as Wufei continued to yell at him.

"Where's that oily faced idiot!  I told him that scooter was NOT to be sold!"

The salesperson wisely didn't say anything.  Quatre tried to be the peacemaker.  "Wufei - " He stopped when Wufei whirled around to face him, a very scary panicked look on his face.

"Heero is going to kill me." 

Quatre silently agreed.  What was Wufei thinking, taking Heero's gift to Relena?  But he didn't say that as a strange light crossed Wufei's eyes.

"What a minute…"  Wufei began to pace, stopping so suddenly that Quatre thought he was about to throw something that he ducked instinctively.  Only Wufei started to laugh.

"They don't know I took it!" It was a rather 'BUHAHAHA' laugh and Wufei came off really strange especially with that damn figurine still going 'Don't be a humbug'.  "They don't KNOW!" He started to pace again.  "It could've been stolen from Peacecraft Mansion!  Yes! I'll tell them that! A lapse in security…" He continued to mumble to himself before fixing a glare onto Quatre. 

"You won't say anything, right Quatre."

It was more of a statement and Quatre just nodded in agreement.  In the back of his mind, Quatre decided to offer one of his other desert mansions to Wufei for next Christmas.  This holiday season was obviously too stressful for the man.

"We should probably leave now, Wufei." Said Quatre gently.  "You're supposed to be at the Mansion by now and I need to get ready for the ball.  I'll give you a lift there." 

Wufei nodded absentmindedly not really listening as he mentally went over what to say to Heero.  The salesperson let out the breath he was holding as the two men left the store.  'Geez, crazy shoppers.' He thought as he went to the back to find some polish, not seeing the pink vespa scooter with the initials R.D. tucked away in the corner of the repairs area.

            ********************************

Person who said yea! I finished another chappie! Now if JtML would be like this too…:

This one was shorter, since I realised that I forgot that they all had to be out of the department store! Heh…One more chappie to go! I swear! …Well I'm pretty sure ^_~ Next chapter will have SAP! So watch out for it! And since it is most definitely the last chapter it will be long and winding. Hopefully.  I really should stop saying these things! Ta!  Oh! R&R and C&C and everything else you can do!


	6. Chapter Six: I am so tired of Christmas

DISCLAIMER: owned by those other people of there who are rich. You know the ones, Bandai and those people over there. OVER THERE.

No Red Letters  
Chapter 6: I am so tired of Christmas commercialism! I want pure commercialism, dammit!

"Jingle bells, jingle, jingle bells-bells, jingle, jingle all the way!"

"Shut. UP!"

Five seconds of blissful silence later…

"Sigh-lent nigh - "

A very loud whack was heard as Dorothy hit Bethany on the back of the head.

"Oww! What was that for?" Bethany densely asked, rubbing her head.

Dorothy glared at her incredulously. "If you sing one more Christmas song I will throw you out on the sidewalk and order the guards to shoot you on sight if you come ten feet from my house."

Bethany 'hmphed' but wisely said nothing. The rest of the car trip was spent in icy silence as Dorothy's gold limo-tank wove its way through the heavy traffic and snow.

* * *

"Thank you Azad." Quatre waved off his limo driver as he quickly made his way into the Peacecraft Mansion; the snow was beginning to fall heavily now. He nodded thanks to the coat attendee as he shrugged the snow off his long jacket. 

"Oh wait." Quatre removed a small wrapped present from his jacked pocket. He had managed to get at least one gift for -

"Q-man!"

"Duo." He smiled cheerfully at his friend. Duo looked like he'd already drank quite a few eggnogs.

"Good to see ya! Merry Christmas!" Duo slapped Quatre heartily on the back. "You won't believe what happened today - "

"Quatre. You made it."

Quatre smiled at the familiar cold monotone voice. "Merry Christmas, Heero."

Heero nodded to him before turning a death glare to Duo. "You drank all the eggnog."

Duo giggled and smiled his trademark 'innocent puppy dog smile'. "You'd think the catering would stock more than 150 litres of eggnog."

Quatre gave a start, "You drank 150 litres of eggnog!"

"No. He hooked it up to the fountain in the ballroom. Then started drinking from it."

"Trowa! Good to see you again!" Quatre hugged his best friend who had just entered the foyer.

"Hey man, it was a good idea!" Duo exclaimed. "Where's Wu-man? He's the only one not here." Duo didn't notice the already dark look on Heero's face get darker.

"He is head of security tonight." Four heads swiveled towards the person who had spoken.

"Miss Sally, merry Christmas." "Quatre kissed Sally's extended white gloved hand.

"So, what are you hiding under that coat, Sal? Bet Wu-man's eyes are going to get knocked out." Duo winked suggestively at Sally who playfully punched him on the shoulder.

From the top of the staircase, Hilde cleared her throat. "How about us dear?" she called out, linking arms with Midii as they slowly descended from the top of the marble staircase. Duo whistled appreciatively as the two walked down the stairs. Just as Hilde reached the last step, Duo grabbed her hand and planted sloppy kisses all the way up to her ear before growling playfully. Hilde swatted him away gently, rolling her eyes though she couldn't hide the smile on her face. Midii smiled awkwardly at Trowa; the dark blue chiffon, off the shoulder gown looked excellent on her but she still couldn't help feeling that she was imposing on Trowa's friends - even with Relena's repeated reassurances.

Trowa sensing Midii's reserve, kissed her hand and whispered with an almost reverence, "You are beautiful, Midii." That alone made her smile brighter and she felt more at ease. What did she have to worry about? Trowa was here. Hilde, Sally and Duo were becoming her friends and Relena Peacecraft was extraordinarily generous to lend her the gown…Midii shook away her fears as she returned Trowa's compliment; playing absentmindedly with his jacket lapel.

"Ohmigod! Sally! That gown! That's the one I saw. The one that …." Hilde trailed off, winking conspiratorially at Midii.

Midii had noticed at the same time as Hilde and smiled back knowingly. The gown suited Sally to a tee. They both thought, "Thank goodness I hadn't bought that gown."

Sally tried in vain to get Hilde to finish her sentence but Hilde and Midii wanted to put the department store fiasco behind them even if that had been the start of their friendship. "What's the big secret?" Catherine had snuck up on them; not coming down the stairs but from the elevator on the left of the staircase. She looked quizzically at Midii and Hilde but neither said a word.

"You look lovely Catherine." Trowa held out his other arm for his sister.

"Doesn't Trowa look great in his tux?" Catherine asked Midii who held Trowa's other arm. "Told him the dark green vest would look devilishly sexy."

Trowa felt like a tennis spectator as his sister and his girlfriend began talking about everything and anything.

"Where'd Heero go?" Duo asked Quatre who had just noticed that Heero had vanished and was about to ask the same question.

"Right here." Heero had gone to Relena's room when Sally had made her entrance. Relena wrapped her white gloved hand around his arm as they both descended down the staircase. She was wearing a long white cape that covered her gown completely.

"I'm so glad all of you are - Sally!" Relena exclaimed. Sally looked surprised at the outburst. She looked around her quickly before looking down at herself. 'Was there something on her face?'

Relena gave a defeated sigh and shook her head. "I can't win, can I?" she mumbled to herself, before slowly taking of her white cape.

"Oh…" Hilde uttered. They were wearing the same gown.

Sally was about to ask where had she gotten the gown from when the butler walked in to introduce the first arrivals of the official guests.

"Hello!" Bethany waved at Trowa. Midii wondered who she was and why did she wink at her boyfriend?

"Bethany." A voice used to using 'that' tone said behind her.

"Was everyone waiting for - " The smirk died on Dorothy's lips as she spotted Relena and Sally. She had been in the process of taking of her fur coat but closed it up again, glaring at the butler who was waiting to receive it.

Maybe she could go back home and change…

"Hey Dory, they both have the same gown as you do!" Too late. Bethany looked up at Dorothy's murderous gaze and realized she probably shouldn't have pointed out that fact.

A chuckle broke the icy silence. "Dorothy I'm guessing you're wearing the same gown as Relena and I?" Sally at Dorothy's flushed face and nodded to Relena, "Cinq's biggest Department Store?" Relena seeing the humor as well nodded with a smile.

"No. I'm going to personally prosecute my dressmaker. "Dorothy sighed in resignation, taking off her fur coat which the butler gladly received. Midii and Hilde silently thanked above for stopping them from buying that dress.

* * *

"Who is that girl, Trowa?" Midii took a small sip of the punch Trowa had just given her. That girl, who had come in with that other woman wearing that red gown, Dorothy Catalonia, head of Romefeller. She had done some freelance work for them. Midii recalled Dorothy calling that girl 'Bethany'. Duo seemed to know her but she wasn't continuously looking at _him_ or giving Hilde glares.

Midii looked expectantly at her boyfriend, who if she didn't know better seemed to be ignoring her questions.

"Trowa? Who is she?"

An imperceptible sigh escaped his lips before he answered. "She's Dorothy Catalonia's cousin."

"That's not what I meant. Why does she keep looking at you like that?" Midii silently added, 'And why does she keep glaring at me?'

"I don't know what you mean." Trowa took the glass she was holding and set it down on the buffet table.

"Care to dance?"

Bethany glared at the petite blond woman in the dark blue gown. Didn't that blond hussy know Trowa was already taken? Not that Trowa was discouraging her. She had thought Trowa was the strong, silent, one-girl type of guy. Obviously she had read him wrong. He seemed rather suave and a ladies man right now. Did Lady Une know this about her boyfriend? Bethany checked her watch again; the ball had officially started 20 minutes ago but there were only a handful of guests including those that had been in the foyer. She had heard one of the valets saying that the snow was nearly covering the tires of the cars. Taking another sip of the non-alcoholic punch (Dorothy had forbidden her to drink anything alcoholic), Bethany muttered, "Well! I guess when the cats away the mouse will play." She muttered to herself as Trowa began to dance with that blond woman. Finally catching Trowa's eye, she glared and stalked off to the entrance to the ballroom. She was going to have a word with him. 

Trowa noticed the move. How was he going to follow Bethany without inflaming Midii's already smoldering suspicions? His answer came in the form of his sister.

"Midii, do you mind if I dance with Catherine?" He gave her a smile that never failed Duo. "I think she wants to dance." Indicating with his head where Catherine was, talking to some politician who seemed to be hitting on her. Midii nodded reluctantly. "Go save your sister." Smiling outwardly but inside she was relieved he wasn't going to dance with that glaring blond bimbo.

Catherine looked surprised and thankful as Trowa swept her onto the dance floor. Why was it that she always got hit on by everyone over 50? Trowa swirled her around, getting closer and closer to the entrance, before Trowa spying Midii across the floor talking to Relena excused himself from Catherine and was gone from the ballroom in a matter of seconds. Catherine looked bewildered but shrugged it off. Must have been too much eggnog for her little brother.

Trowa found Bethany waiting at the bottom of the staircase. "I need to talk to you." With that clipped sentence, Bethany walked briskly down the hallway before reaching one of Relena's parlor rooms; a frowning Trowa right behind her.

"Are you serious about her?" Bethany asked before Trowa could say anything. They were in the blue room; relatively small in regards to the other rooms at the Mansion.

"What?" Trowa shook his head. "About her? Of course I am! Can you just give me the gift Bethany."

"Really? Then why flirt with that blond floozy?" Bethany was rummaging through her purse looking for the gift.

"Trowa looked at her confused. Blond floozy? Who was she talking about? "Listen, Bethany can you just please give me the gift? I have the money here." Trowa took out his wallet just as Bethany found the gift. She held it tightly in her hand.

"I don't think you should give her something like this if you're not entirely serious about her. Leading someone on like that is very wrong and on Christmas as well! Have you no shame?" Bethany hugged the gift to her. She wasn't going to let him have it until he promised to do away with his womanizing ways.

Trowa's patience was running thin. Midii might have already noticed he was missing since there wasn't much of a crowd. If she walked in on him and Bethany together…It would definitely hinder their relationship. "Bethany. I love her. I would never do anything to hurt her. Now can you please give me the gift."

Unbeknownst to the couple in the blue room, Midii had indeed realized that Trowa was missing but that _Bethany_ was also not there. Now she didn't want to be one of those paranoid girlfriends always convinced that their boyfriend was cheating on them. She wasn't insecure and she didn't doubt Trowa…but damn it! She didn't trust that blond floozy! Maybe she was one of those predatory people out to break up happy couples. Midii felt slightly stupid as she walked down the hallway. "What am I doing?" she asked herself out loud. Trowa loved her, though he had never said it…but all the looks and all the words he did say made it clear that he loved her, right? Midii whapped herself lightly on the head and went back in the direction of the ballroom. He was probably there wondering where _she_ was! She quickened her steps but stopped abruptly when she had a small thud. It came from one of the parlor rooms. Silently walking up to the door, she pressed her ear to the cool mahogany. It sounded like two people arguing. She was about to step away from the door when she realized who's voice it was. Trowa! Then who was that other voice? It sounded like a …girls voice. Midii frowned, anger was slowly rising and face was becoming slightly red. 'I can't believe this!' She placed her hand on the door knob and with a strength she didn't even know she had swung open the door.

Bethany stubbornly held onto the gift. Trowa had placed the money on the coffee table and had his hand outstretched in front of her. "No. I don't think so." That was when Trowa tried to grab the gift and Bethany hit the side table and knocked over a lamp (thankfully it didn't break). Using the distraction to his advantage; he managed to wrench the gift out of Bethany's hand.

"Hey! You give that back!"

Trowa looked at her like she was crazy. "I never should've listened to Duo." He held the gift high over his head as Bethany tried to grab it back.

"Trowa, give it back!"

Trowa just shook his head and turned away from her to the door - big mistake as soon as his back was turned Bethany jumped on him, not realizing how difficult that would be in high heels and a gown, she managed to topple him over and he landed on her. Then the room got suddenly very bright and Trowa and Bethany simultaneously turned to look at the door. There was that blond floozy staring at them in shock and anger.

Trowa scrambled to his feet, only just realizing how very, very bad it must look to be on top of a girl who wasn't your girlfriend. "Midii I can explain." He cringed at how awful that sounded.

Bethany gingerly got up. She had torn the gown - Dorothy was going to kill her. "Geez, you're heavy Trowa." She turned to the blond bimbo framing the doorway. "Oh don't give me that look! It's you who should be ashamed!"

Midii glared at the girl. "You're lecturing me on being ashamed! You have some nerve, trying that with my boyfriend!" She walked into the room and stood inches away from Trowa. "And YOU! I can't believe you!"

Bethany cringed as that girl slapped Trowa. 'He's going to feel that for days.' A red handprint was already forming on his face.

"Midii - " Trowa was cut off as Midii faced off with Bethany.

"I know your name, _Bethany_; you're going to regret ever hearing the name Midii Une because when I'm through with you - " Midii was cut off when Bethany exclaimed, "What!"

"You're name is Midii UNE?" Bethany's eyes grew three sizes larger. "Oh dear…" She smiled apologetically at the confused face Midii was giving her and Trowa's now swelling face.

"Uh, it's finally great to meet you Midii UNE. You see, I'm not wearing my contacts and from far away I thought you were someone else and well I also thought you had darker hair and - uh never mind! You see Trowa and I were just arguing about your Christmas GIFT, because, well you see, I bought it for him so it would be a surprise for you and I thought he was seeing someone else that wasn't you but turned out to be YOU and well now here we are!" Bethany inhaled and continued, "So really nothing is going on between Trowa and I and to prove it, Trowa give her the gift!" She motioned to the gift in Trowa's hand.

Trowa smiled hopefully at Midii who looked at Bethany and then Trowa with a 'what the?' expression on her face. The gift box was slightly dented but the actual jewellery box was fine as Midii opened it to reveal that beautiful ring. She gasped in surprise, gazing at Trowa who was smiling crookedly at her. "Read the inscription." He said simply.

Midii took out the ring and read what was written on the inside of the ring. "e…Lady Une." Midii said the last part of the inscription out loud.

Bethany interjected before Trowa could say anything, "Yep! Lady Une! You see to Trowa you are his LADY and Trowa is uh, your KNIGHT in shining armour?"

"Oh." Midii looked at Trowa for confirmation, he only nodded vigorously.

"May I have the honour of putting thy ring on my Lady's hand." Midii giggled at how serious Trowa said that.

"You may good Knight."

Bethany thought it would be a good idea to slip out now and as she closed the door to the blue room, she mouthed 'sorry' to Trowa as Midii was kissing away the slap on his face.

* * *

"This must be the worst Christmas party I've thrown since, well last year." sighed Relena, sipping on her eggnog (it was the only drink available, all the champagne that was supposed to have been served was stuck in traffic along with most of the guests). Relena glanced around the room; only a handful of her guests had made it. She had heard reports of a sudden blizzard, explaining why most of the dignitaries invited weren't there. At least she wasn't stuck in traffic or the airport. Relena cringed as more taped music blared out of the surround sound speakers.

"Fantastic turnout, isn't it, Relena?" Dorothy had sneaked up behind her; both of them looking like two giant red stockings by the spray painted Christmas tree. Relena nodded and clinked glasses with Dorothy's eggnog glass.

"Oh! Before I forget, I have to thank you for your gift. Duke Graht gave me the same thing this morning but I accidentally broke it." Relena smiled at Dorothy, not realising her friend was gripping her wineglass a little too tightly. "I knew he would ask me about it and I thought I would have to buy another one but you did it for me! I hope you don't mind if I say it's his gift, do you Dorothy?"

"No. That's fine. Excuse me." Dorothy snapped the wineglass as she walked away from Relena. All that Department Store HELL for nothing! Dorothy felt like hyperventilating but she managed to make it to the farthest corner of the balcony before throwing her now useless wineglass over the edge; covering her mouth with her white-gloved hand, she screamed and stomped her feet for good measure.

"Dorothy are you ok?" Dorothy whipped around, her hair hitting Sally in the face.

"Ow! I take it you're not ok, then?" Sally smirked, it was a bit chilly outside on the balcony but they were standing under a clear awning that was set up for the ball. It was all covered in snow with more snow steadily falling. The gardens must have been covered in more than a metre of snow. "Sally, you have no. Idea. How. NOT. Ok I am right now." Dorothy shivered slightly. The giant gas heaters situated in the middle of the balcony didn't quite reach the far end, where they were standing.

"The only thing that could possibly make it worse would be - " A loud crash stopped short what Dorothy was saying; the two blonds peered through the spray-painted-with-fake-snow French windows to see Bethany helping a waiter up from the ground. The dessert tray he was holding was now decorating the ESUN L3 Ambassador's head. " - Her." Dorothy finished. "Excuse me Sally, before my cousin causes another PR nightmare."

Sally nodded, hiding a smile behind her eggnog. Before enquiring after Dorothy, she had been looking for Heero. He had the security pass to access the monitoring rooms where Wufei was probably sitting around, bored out of his skull. Since she was off-duty she had left her security pass (she couldn't cram it into the purse that matched her gown) and when she couldn't find him around Relena, she had gone to the balcony to see if he was there checking the perimeter.

"Not here either." Sally murmured to herself. Well, the hallway was next then.

* * *

Heero swiped the security pass and punched in the 10 digit code. The door unlocked and he entered a room, where the only light was coming from a dozen monitor screens.

"Nothing unusual?"

"Nothing. If they were planning on something, the weather would have frozen them to death by now." Wufei folded his arms across his chest. This was the best Christmas yet - no Duo, no costumes, no Wufei bashing at all.

"Good." Heero leaned forward until he was right in front of Wufei's face. Wufei was leaning back on a swivel chair and he reclined as far back as he could without toppling over.

"What?" A sudden uneasiness swept over him. Heero couldn't have known, right?

"I know." Was all Heero said before straightening up. He walked to the door but before he opened it, he turned back to Wufei and with a truly evil glare said, "Get it back or Duo will know you drove around town in a pink Vespa."  
Wufei swallowed hard. He looked at the now closed door, tiny sweat beads had formed on his forehead. He had to get that stupid scooter back now! Turning to his laptop, he started looking for the number of that damned Department Store, not noticing that a certain blond, in a fire truck red gown was coming up the stairs.

"Stupid shop. Stupid scooter. Stupid pimple faced teen - "

"Preventer Chang? I have - " Wufei turned muted his earpiece. Why did he have to get all the newbie recruits? Granted most of the experienced Preventers were in the ballroom or on the ground level, did he have to be stuck with Preventers just out of the Academy?

"Wufei."

Wufei swivelled around on his chair so fast that he nearly toppled over. "Relena! How did you get past security?" He needn't have asked as the two Preventers guarding the door looked sheepishly on.

"Wufei, this is my house." Relena waved off the two Preventers and they close the door behind them. "Besides Heero gave me his spare security card."

Wufei eyed her suspiciously. Reading between the lines, 'gave' meant taken while Heero was preoccupied with her. "Relena, the hostess should never leave her own party." Wufei stood up to escort Relena back to the ballroom but the cold glare that had suddenly graced her feattures stopped him cold. How eerily alike Heero and Relena were when they glared at you. 'Heero must be giving her tips.' Wufei thought warily, 'Did Heero tell Relena about the scooter? Damn him!'

"Wufei, since it is Christmas Eve I'll let this little indiscretion go." Wufei waited for the 'but'.

Relena gave a smirk Dorothy would've been envious of. "But if you ever touch one of my things - especially a gift from Heero - I'll make sure you're an instructor at the Preventor Academy for the rest of your working life." Relena turned to the door, "I expect it to be in my garage by tomorrow afternoon. Merry Christmas Wufei." With that she closed the door softly behind her.

Wufei wondered if it was possible to be more afraid of Relena then Heero. Most definitely fear Relena - Heero could take his life away but Relena could make it hell. He shuddered at the thought of teaching newbies for the rest of his life. "Damn that stupid pimpled face teenager!"

* * *

"This year's Christmas party isn't much fun without Wufei to tease." Duo gulped down more eggnog, managing to twirl Hilde around the dance floor while maintaining his nearly half full glass.

"After last year's party, I'm surprised he didn't have a restraining order placed on you." Hilde took a sip from the glass Duo was holding. "It is kinda quiet though."

The happy couple looked around the sparse ballroom. Considering that 50 out of the 250 VIP guests that made it through the blizzard, the ballroom felt very, very large and empty. At least most of the catering had made it through. With the one exception of all the Champagne, Duo thought it was a good thing the eggnog had made it unscathed.

He smiled at Hilde, who took that opportunity to take a sip from his glass of eggnog.

"I know what you're thinking; don't do it."

Duo feigned an innocent look. "I wasn't thinking about anything to do with Wufei."

"Which reminds me, thank Christmas that I didn't buy that dress. Sally looked gorgeous in it." Hilde scanned the room, looking for Sally. "Where is everyone?"

They could only spot Catherine, while the telltale signs of that red dress were no where to be seen. "I can't even see - oh wait, there's Relena..."

"And there she goes again." Duo finished, as they watched a familar mop of unruly brown hair pull the hostess out of the ballroom.

* * *

"Relena, didn't I tell you to stay in the ballroom?" Heero looked slightly annoyed. Why did she always ignore his security warnings?  
Relena rolled her eyes. Heero looked adorable when he frowned. That wasn't the reason she constantly ignored his warnings...

"Heero, Iwas just checking up on a few things. Stop worrying." She kissed him lightly on the lips, just noticing they were standing under the many mistletoes decorating the mansion. 'One down, how many more to go?' Relena thought as she spied more mistletoe under another archway. She pulled him towards the next mistletoe and gave him a deeper kiss. 'Two.' She was about to kiss him again, under mistletoe three when someone behind them cleared their throats.

"Sorry to intrude but, Heero can I borrow your security card?"

Heero snapped out of his dreamy state, with a glare and a "What?"

Sally was about to explain but Relena pulled out 'her' security pass and tossed it to Sally. "Here Sal, you can use mine."

Sally winked at them and left. "Now where were we?" Relena turned back to Heero about to continue their mistletoe counting game but stopped short. Heero was still glaring. At her? Whatever for? Relena mentally slapped herself. The security card!

"I didn't give you a security card."

"Heero! It's my home and you didn't give me one!"

"That's because last time I gave you one, you left it on the coffee table - anyone could've stolen it and copied it and -"

"Heero! I was still in the room! I put it down for two minutes and you're never going to forget it, are you?" Relena sighed and looked skyward. The mistletoe smirked back at her. She tried a different tact. "I only took that security card so I could talk to  
Wufei about taking my Vespa. I really love that Christmas gift you gave me."

Heero unfolded his arms. "So what number is this mistletoe?"

Relena smiled. "Number three." She wrapped her arms around Heero and kissed him. "I think there's another one in here." Relena said between breathless kisses from Heero. She managed to open the door to the blue room, and they stumbled towards the sofa.

"Uh!" Four rather horny and embarressed people stared at anything but each other.

"Well. Heero its not in here." Relena gave as small smile. "Lets go check the other rooms." Heero closed the door to the blue room but not before smirking at Trowa.

Midii buried her head in one of the throw pillows and suppressed a moan. "Why do I keep making a bad impression to your friends?"

* * *

Sally waved at the two Preventors at the door. "So hows the taskmaster?"

The two guards looked at each other nervously. You don't want to go in there, ma'am." But they both saluted her and stood aside.

She found Wufei typing furiously away on the keyboard. He was so hunched over that he didn't notice Sally walk up beside him.

"Cinq's largest department store?"

Wufei was so startled that he jumped out of his chair, banging his legs against the desk. A few monitors jumped with him.

"Are you ok?"

"Sally! Yes! Of course I'm fine! What are you doing here." Wufei cleared his throat. He sounded squeaky. "You're supposed to be at the party." He shut off the monitor he was looking at.

"I just wanted to see how things were doing up here. The party is pretty dull." Sally gave him a quizzical look. Wufei was acting strange, well stranger than usual.

Wufei was just noticing what Sally was wearing. She looked beautiful in red...Which looked familarly to him but he couldn't remember from where. "Sally you...look beautiful." He fished out a small box from inside his jacket pocket.  
"Here." He threw the box at her which she caught in her gloved hand. "Well. Open it!"

Sally hid a smile. So he had gotten her something anyway. The box wasn't wrapped and when she opened it she realised it wasn't a box but a miniature music box. It began tinkling 'Ode to Joy'.

"Thank you, Wufei. Its a lovely gift." She kissed him on the cheek. Carefully closing the lid of the music box, she gestured to the turned off monitor. "Why were you looking up Cinq's largest department store?"

Wufei blushed slightly. Thank goodness the light from the other monitors didn't highlight his face. "Long story." When he didn't say anything else, Sally pulled up a chair and sat down next to him.

"Since the party's dull right now, you don't mind if I help you out?"

"You won't get paid."

"I don't mind. I think you could use some Christmas company."

Before Wufei could protest again, Sally kissed him. "Mistletoe." She explained as they broke off. Wufei had a "What?" expression on his face. "Fei, focus on the screens."

* * *

"Can you be any more embarrassing?" Dorothy held a vice like grip onto Bethany as she dragged her all the way to the balcony without incident.

"Embarrassing? Dorothy it was an accident. The Ambassador didn't seem to mind." Bethany felt her fingers go numb and tingly. "Dory could you loosen the grip, I can't feel my fingers."

Dorothy let her go but not before swinging her around so they were face to face. "Stay here. Don't move from this spot. I don't care if you get cold. But you're not allowed back into that ballroom until you can function properly for two minutes!"

"When you say function - "

"Shut up! Just. NO. MORE. TALKING." Dorothy felt the migraine press against her skull. She walked a few metres away from her cousin before stopping and she turned back and glared at Bethany who's mouth was half open. "No singing or humming either. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. NOT A WORD." She turned back towards the ballroom to stomp away from Bethany for good measure instead she stomped on someone's foot.

"Argh!" Quatre cringed. He probably shouldn't have stood right behind her.

Dorothy stared at Quatre in horror. Someone really, really hated her in cosmos.

"I was about to warn you." Bethany muttered behind her.

"Its fine, Miss Dorothy. I was just looking for you." Quatre glanced behind Dorothy. Her cousin was staring rather intently at the sky.

Dorothy resumed an icy demeanour. "Really? Come to apologise for leaving me in that holding cell?"

Quatre cleared his throat nervously. "About that...I apologise for leaving you there. I came looking for you here to give you a peace offering." He pulled out a small box. "Please accept this Christmas gift."

Bethany had quit pretending to not notice the two blonds and was craning her neck to look at what that cute guy had given her cousin. Dorothy hid her surprise. He had bought her a gift? And he'd apologised even though it was half her fault. Damn him for being this nice!

"Mr Winner, if you think buying my forgiveness is going to work - "

"Open the gift!" Bethany said excitedly. She had moved from her designated spot and was standing right behind Dorothy.

"Bethany." Dorothy grinded her teeth together. "Go back to the ballroom."

"But you said - "

"Will you JUST.GO."

"I don't think I'm functioning properly yet - "

"You can drink alcohol."

"Ok then. See you inside."

Bethany smiled up at Quatre before skipping back inside. Dorothy glared at her retreating form until she had gone inside the ballroom. Looking at the small red box in her gloved hand, she smirked. "I guess this can be a small step towards reconciliation, Mr Winner." Carefully pulling at the gold ribbon around the box, Dorothy opened it to reveal…A small crystal figurine of a reindeer. Two small blue stones for eyes and a red stone for its nose.

"I thought it would serve as a sort of reminder, never to go shopping on Christmas Eve." Quatre said with a smile. Dorothy surprised him by laughing out loud.

"After that debacle with the singing reindeer, beheading Santa and finding out my dress is not designer made, I think I've learnt my lesson."

"I think I'll hole myself up in one of my desert mansions for next Christmas season." Quatre glanced up at the sky, the snow was still falling but more lightly now.

"I think I'll join you." Dorothy sighed, she turned to Quatre to say something else when his lips lightly brushed against hers. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. Quatre pulled back almost as quickly; he was turning as red as her dress.

"Uh, mistletoe." He pointed at her head. Dorothy looked up and realised there was mistletoe in her hair. Bethany! Damn her, how'd she put this in her hair? Part of Dorothy's mind ticked over how she would torture her cousin, the other part felt slightly happy and tipsy which would explain why she plucked the twig out of her hair and placed it on Quatre's head.

"I believe I owe you a kiss, Mr Winner."

* * *

While Relena's annual Christmas Ball, didn't turn out exactly as she had planned, everyone got exactly what they wanted, with the exception of Duo who didn't pull a prank on Wufei, much to his disappointment. Midii never did find out that it was Duo's luggage that had destroyed her own. Dorothy decided not to prosecute her dressmaker, instead she recommended her to Bethany. Quatre's secretary managed to get all the gifts for the Winners and Quatre was saved from any family disputes. Wufei got Relena's Vespa back without killing that oily faced teenager and not incurring any wrath from Heero or Relena – well a little from Heero but it was Christmas so it wasn't too painful. Hilde and Catherine decided for next years Christmas Ball, all the girls would go shopping together to avoid anything unfortunate happening again.

And they all learnt never EVER to shop at Cinq's largest department store on Christmas Eve. (Well some were banned from the store so they didn't really have a choice).

THE END.

* * *

Person who can't believe it taken so long: BELATED MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!  
I really really really am sorry for taking over two years to finish this! My goodness. Yes I know the ending is strange – I never ended any story like this but I really didn't know how else to!  
With so many computer issues and losing drafts – it may seem like this last chapter is patchy mainly because I wrote parts or it years ago!  
BTW for those who are curious (no one), its called No Red Letters because I used to work at Australia Post as a Christmas casual. Where the machines being fed the letters (hundred thousands of xmas cards) couldn't read mail in red envelopes (because machines are dumb…not you my computer! Don't you dare break down on me again!) So that's why its called No Red Letters. Anywho! If you'd like please criticise and criticise! Er, read and review? Anyone?  
As you can see I am going to finish my other fics just like this one! Hopefully I another two years I'll be done! Really I'm kidding! I really need to stop procrastinating… 


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